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THE VATICAN DECREES 



IN 



THEIR BEARING 01 CIVIL ALLEGIANCE; 



21 Political (Expostulation. 



BY THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 

... . A ■ 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED : 

A HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL; 

TOGETHER WITH tWe LATIN AND ENGLISH TEXT OF 

THE PAPAL SYLLABUS and THE VATICAN DECREES. 



BY THE REV. PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. 

FROM HIS FORTHCOMING ' HISTORY OF THE' CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM. 





NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

18 75. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 
HARPER & BROTHERS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



The Library 
of Congress 



Washington 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

THE VATICAN DECREES IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL 
ALLEGIANCE. By the Right Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone, 
M.P. 9 

HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. By the Rev. Philip 

SCHAEF, D.D 51 

THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. (Latin and English 

Text.) 109 



THE VATICAN DECREES. (Latin and English Text.) 



131 



THE VATICAN DECREES 

ra 

THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 

BY THE 

EIGHT HOIST. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. The Occasion and Scope of this Tract. Four Propositions. 

Are they True? 9 

II. The First and Fourth Propositions. (1) 'That Eome has 
substituted for the proud boast of semper eadem a policy of 
violence and change in faith.' (4) ' That she has equally 
repudiated modern thought and ancient history' 13 

III. The Second Proposition — 'That she has refurbished and pa- 

raded anew every rusty tool she was thought to have dis- 
used' ; 15 

IV. The Third Proposition — 'That Rome requires a convert who 

now joins her to forfeit his moral and mental freedom, and to 
place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another' ... 18 

V. Being True, are the Propositions Material? 33 

VI. Being True and Material, were the Propositions Proper 

TO BE SET FORTH BY THE PRESENT WRITER ? 39 

VII. On the Home Policy of the Future 42 

Appendices 4V 



THE VATICAN DECREES 

IN 

4 

THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



I. The Occasion and Scope of this Teact. 

In the prosecution of a purpose not polemical, but pacific, I have 
been led to employ words which belong, more or less, to the region of 
religious controversy ; and which, though they were themselves few, 
seem to require, from the various feelings they have aroused, that I 
should carefully define, elucidate, and defend them. The task is not 
of a kind agreeable to me ; but I proceed to perform it. 

Among the causes which have tended to disturb and perplex the 
public mind in the consideration of our own religious difficulties, one 
has been a certain alarm at the aggressive activity and imagined 
growth of the Roman Church in this country. All are aware of our 
susceptibility on this side; and it was not, I think, improper for one 
who desires to remove every thing that can interfere with a calm and 
judicial temper, and who believes the alarm to be groundless, to state, 
pointedly though briefly, some reasons for that belief. 

Accordingly I did not scruple to use the following language in a 
paper inserted in the number of the Contemporary Review for the 
month of October [1874]. I was speaking of 4 the question whether a 
handful of the clergy are or are not engaged in an utterly hopeless and 
visionary effort to Romanize the Church and people of England.' 

'At no time since the bloody reign of Mary has such a scheme been possible. But if it 
had been possible in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, it would still have become im- 
possible in the nineteenth : when Eome has substituted for the proud boast of semper eadem 
a policy of violence and change in faith ; when she has refurbished and paraded anew every 
rusty tool she was fondly thought to have disused ; when no one can become her convert 
without renouncing his moral and mental freedom, and placing his civil loyalty and duty at 



10 



THE VATICAN DECEEES 



the mercy of another ; and when she has equally repudiated modern thought and ancient 
history.' 1 

Had I been, when I wrote this passage, as I now am, addressing 
myself in considerable measure to my Eoman Catholic fellow-coun- 
trymen, I should have striven to avoid the seeming roughness of some 
of these expressions ; but as the question is now about their substance, 
from which I am- not in any particular disposed to recede, any attempt 
to recast their general form would probably mislead. I proceed, then, 
to deal with them on their merits. 

More than one friend of mine among those who have been led to 
join the Roman Catholic communion has made this passage the sub-' 
ject, more or less, of expostulation. Now, in my opinion, the asser- 
tions which it makes are, as coming from a layman who has spent most 
and the best years of his life in the observation and practice of poli- 
tics, not aggressive, but defensive. 

f\ It is neither the abettors of the Papal Chair, nor any one who, how- 
ever far from being an abettor of the Papal Chair, actually writes 
from a Papal point of view, that has a right to remonstrate with the 
world at large ; but it is the world at large, on the contrary, that has 
the fullest right to remonstrate, first, with his Holiness ; secondly, with 
those who share his proceedings ; thirdly, even with such as passively 
allow and accept them. 

I, therefore, as one of the world at large, propose to expostulate in 
my turn. I shall strive to show to such of my Roman Catholic fellow- 
subjects as may kindly give me a hearing that, after the singular steps 
which the authorities of their Church have in these last years thought 
fit to take, the people of this country, who fully believe in their loyal- 
ty, are entitled, on purely civil grounds, to expect from them some dec- 
laration or manifestation of opinion in reply to that ecclesiastical party 
in their Church who have laid down, in their name, principles adverse 
to the purity and integrity of civil allegiance. 

Undoubtedly my allegations are of great breadth. Such broad alle- 
gations require a broad and a deep foundation. The first question 
which they raise is, Are they, as to the material part of them, true ? 
But even their truth might not suffice to show that their publication 



1 Contemporary Review, October, 187-t, p. 674. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



11 



was opportune. The second question, then, which they raise is, Are 
they, for any practical purpose, material ? And there is yet a third, 
though a minor question, which arises out of the propositions in con- 
nection with their authorship, Were they suitable to be set forth by 
the present writer ? 

To these three questions I will now set myself to reply. And the 
matter of my reply will, as I conceive, constitute and convey an appeal 
to the understandings of my Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen which 
I trust that, at the least, some among them may deem not altogether 
unworthy of their consideration. -> // £ 

From the language used by some of the organs of Roman Catholic 
opinion, it is, I am afraid, plain that in some quarters they have given 
deep offense. Displeasure, indignation, even fury, might be said to 
mark the language which in the heat of the moment has been expressed 
here and there. They have been hastily treated as an attack made 
upon Roman Catholics generally — nay, as an insult offered them. It 
is obvious to reply that of Roman Catholics generally they state noth- 
ing. Together with a reference to '.converts,' of which I shall say 
more, they constitute generally a free and strong animadversion on the 
conduct of the Papal Chair, and of its advisers and abettors. If I am 
told that he who animadverts upon these assails thereby, or insults, Ro- 
man Catholics at large, who do not choose their ecclesiastical rulers, 
and are not recognized as having any voice in the government of their 
Church, I can not be bound by or accept a proposition which seems to 
me to be so little in accordance with reason. 

Before all things, however, I should desire it to be understood that, 
in the remarks now offered, I desire to eschew not only religious big- 
otry, but likewise theological controversy. Indeed, with theology, ex- 
cept in its civil bearing — with theology as such — I have here nothing 
whatever to do. s But it is the peculiarity of Roman theology that, by 
thrusting itself into the temporal domain, it naturally, and even neces- 
sarily, comes to be a frequent theme of political discussion. To quiet- 
minded Roman Catholics it must be a subject of infinite annoyance 
that their religion is, on this ground more than any other, the subject 
of criticism; more than any other the occasion of conflicts with the 
State and of civil disquietude. I feel sincerely how much hardship 
their case entails. But this hardship is brought upon them altogether 



12 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



by the conduct of the authorities of their own Church. Why did the- 
ology enter so largely into the debates of Parliament on Roman Cath- 
olic Emancipation ? Certainly not because our statesmen and debaters 
of fifty years ago had an abstract love of such controversies, but be- 
cause it was extensively believed that the Pope of Pome had been and 
was a trespasser upon ground which belonged to the civil authority, 
and that he affected to determine by spiritual prerogative questions of 
the civil sphere. This fact, if fact it be, and not the truth or falsehood, 
the reasonableness or unreasonableness, of any article of purely re- 
ligious belief, is the w T hole and sole cause of the mischief. To this 
fact, and to this fact alone, my language is referable ; but for this fact 
it would have been neither my duty nor my desire to use it. All other 
Christian bodies are content with freedom in their own religious do- 
main. Orientals, Lutherans, Calvinists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, 
Nonconformists, one and all, in the present day, contentedly and thank- 
fully accept the benefits of civil order ; never pretend that the State is 
not its own master ; make no religious claims to temporal possessions 
or 'advantages ; and, consequently, never are in perilous collision with 
the State. Nay more, even so I believe it is with the mass of Roman 
Catholics individually. But not so with the leaders of their Church, 
or with those who take pride in following the leaders. Indeed, this 
has been made matter of boast : 

' There is not another Church so called [than the Roman], nor any community professing 
to be a Church, which does not submit, or obey, or hold its peace when the civil governors 
of the world command.' — The Present Crisis of the Holy See, by H. E. Manning, D.D. 
London, 1861, p. 75. 

I 

The Rome of the Middle Ages claimed universal monarchy. The 
modern Church of Rome has abandoned nothing, retracted nothing. 
Is that all ? Far from it. By condemning (as will be seen) those who, 
like Bishop Doyle in 1826, 1 charge the mediaeval Popes with aggression, 
she unconditionally, even if covertly, maintains what the mediaeval 
Popes maintained. But even this is not the worst. The worst by far is 
that whereas in the national Churches and communities of the Middle 
Ages there was a brisk, vigorous, and constant opposition to these out- 
rageous claims — an opposition which stoutly asserted its own orthodoxy, 



1 Lords' Committee, March 18, 1826. Report, p. 190. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



13 



which always caused itself to be respected, and which even sometimes 
gained the upper hand, now, in this nineteenth century of ours, and 
while it is growing old, this same opposition has been put out of court, 
and judicially extinguished within the Papal Church, by the recent de- 
crees of the Yatican. And it is impossible for persons accepting those 
decrees justly to complain when such documents are subjected in good 
faith to a strict examination as respects their compatibility with civil 
right and the obedience of subjects. 

In defending my language, I shall carefully mark its limits. But 
all defense is reassertion, which properly requires a deliberate recon- 
sideration ; and no man who thus reconsiders should scruple, if he find 
so much as a word that may convey a false impression, to amend it. 
Exactness in stating truth according to the measure of our intelligence 
is an indispensable condition of justice and of a title to be heard. 

My propositions, then, as they stood, are these : 

1. That 4 Eome has substituted for the proud boast of semper eadem 
a policy of violence and change in faith.' 

2. That she has refurbished and paraded anew every rusty tool she 
was fondly thought to have disused. 

3. That no one can now become her convert without renouncing his 
moral and mental freedom, and placing his civil loyalty and duty at 
the mercy of another. 

4. That she ('Eome') has equally repudiated modern thought and // 
ancient history. 

II. The First and the Fourth Propositions. 

Of the first and fourth of these propositions I shall dispose rather 
summarily, as they appear to belong to the theological domain. They 
refer to a fact, and they record an opinion. One fact to which they 
refer is this : that, in days within my memory, the constant, favorite, 
and imposing argument of Poman controversialists was the unbroken 
and absolute identity in belief of the.Poman Church from the days 
of our Saviour until now. 'No one who has at all followed the course 
of this literature during the last forty years can fail to be sensible of 
the change in its present tenor. More and more have the assertions 
of continuous uniformity of doctrine receded into scarcely penetrable 
shadow. More and more have another series of assertions, of a liv- 



14 THE VATICAN DECREES 

ing authority, ever ready to open, adopt, and shape Christian doctrine 
according to the times, taken their place. Without discussing the 
abstract compatibility of these lines of argument, I note two of the 
immense practical differences between them. In the first, the office 
claimed by the Church is principally that of a witness to facts ; in the 
second, principally that of a judge, if not a revealer, of doctrine. In 
the first, the processes which the Church undertakes are subject to a 
constant challenge and appeal to history ; in the second, no amount of 
historical testimony can avail against the unmeasured power of the 
theory of development. Most important, most pregnant considerations, 
these, at least for two classes of persons : for those who think that ex- 
aggerated doctrines of Church power are among the real and serious 
dangers of the age; and for those who think that against all forms, 
both of superstition and of unbelief, one main preservative is to be 
found in maintaining the truth and authority of history, and the ines- 
timable value of the historic spirit. 

So much for the fact ; as for the opinion that the recent Papal de- 
crees are at war with modern thought, and that, purporting to enlarge 
the necessary creed of Christendom, they involve a violent breach with 
history, this is a matter unfit for me to discuss, as it is a question of 
Divinity, but not unfit for me to have mentioned in my article, since 
the opinion given there is the opinion of those with whom I was 
endeavoring to reason, namely, the great majority of the British 
public. 

If it is thought that the word violence was open to exception, I re- 
gret I can not give it up. The justification of the ancient definitions 
of the Church, which have endured the storms of 1500 years, was to 
be found in this, that they were not arbitrary or willful, but that they 
wholly sprang from and related to theories rampant at the time, and 
regarded as menacing to Christian belief. Even the Canons of the 
Council of Trent have in the main this amount, apart from their mat- 
ter, of presumptive warrant. But the decrees of the present perilous 
Pontificate have been passed to favor and precipitate prevailing cur- 
rents of opinion in the ecclesiastical world of Kome. The growth of 
what is often termed among Protestants Mariolatry, and of belief in 
Papal Infallibility, was notoriously advancing, but it seems not fast 
enough to satisfy the dominant party. To aim the deadly blows of 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



15 



1854 1 and 1870 at the old historic, scientific, and moderate school, was 
surely an act of violence ; and with this censure the proceeding of 1870 
has actually been visited by the first living theologian now within the 
Roman communion — I mean Dr. John Henry Newman, who has used 
these significant words, among others : i Why should an aggressive and 
insolent faction be allowed to make the heart of the just sad, whom 
the Lord hath not made sorrowful V 2 
4 

III. The Second Proposition. 

I take next my second proposition : that Eome has refurbished and 
paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly thought to have disused. 
Is this, then, a fact, or is it not ? 

I must assume that it is denied ; and therefore I can not wholly pass 
by the work of proof. But I will state, in the fewest possible words 
and with references, a few propositions, all the holders of which have 
been condemned by the See of Rome during my own generation, and 
especially within the last twelve or fifteen years. And, in order that I 
may do nothing towards importing passion into what is matter of pure 
argument, I will avoid citing any of the fearfully energetic epithets in 
which the condemnations are sometimes clothed. 

1. Those who maintain the liberty of the Press. • Encyclical Letter 
of Pope Gregory XVI., in 1831 ; and of Pope Pius IX., in 1864. 

2. Or the liberty of conscience and of worship. Encyclical of Pius 
IX, December 8, 1864. 

3. Or the liberty of speech. < Syllabus ' of March 18, 1861. Prop, 
lxxix. Encyclical of Pope Pius IX., December 8, 1864. 

4. Or who contend that Papal judgments and decrees may, without 
sin, be disobeyed or differed from, unless they treat of the rules (dog- 
mata) of faith or morals. Ibid. 

5. Or who assign to the State the power of defining the civil rights 
(jura) and province of the Church. ' Syllabus ' of Pope Pius IX., 
March 8, 1861. Ibid. Prop. xix. 

6. Or who hold that Roman Pontiffs and (Ecumenical Councils have 



1 Decree of the Immaculate Conception. 

2 See the remarkable letter of Dr. Newman to Bishop Ullathorne, in The Guardian of 
April 6, 1870. 



16 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



transgressed the limits of their power, and usurped the rights of princes. 
Ibid. Prop, xxiii. 

(It must be bor?ie in mind that 'Oecumenical Councils'* here mean 
Roman Councils not recognized by the rest of the Church. The 
Councils of the early Church did not interfere with the jurisdiction 
of the civil power.) 

7. Or that the Church may not employ force. {Ecclesia vis inferen- 
dce potestatem non habet.) 6 Syllabus.' Prop. xxiv. 

8. Or that power, not inherent in the office of the Episcopate, but 
granted to it by the civil authority, may be withdrawn from it at the 
discretion of that authority. Ibid. Prop. xxv. 

9. Or that the (immunitas) civil immunity of the Church and its 
ministers depends upon civil right. Ibid. Prop. xxx. 

10. Or that in the conflict of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, the civil 
law should prevail. Ibid. Prop. xlii. 

11. Or that any method of instruction of youth, solely secular, may 
be approved. Ibid. Prop, xlviii. 

12. Or that knowledge of things philosophical and civil may and 
should decline to be guided by divine and ecclesiastical authority. 
Ibid. Prop. lvii. 

13. Or that marriage is not in its essence a sacrament. Ibid. Prop. lxvi. 

14. Or that marriage not sacramentally contracted (si sacramentum 
excludatur) has a binding force. Ibid. Prop, lxxiii. 

15. Or that the abolition of the temporal power of the Popedom 
would be highly advantageous to the Church. Ibid. Prop, lxxvi. Also 
Prop. lxx. 

16. Or that any other religion than the Eoman religion may be es- 
tablished by a State. Ibid. Prop, lxxvii. 

17. Or that in ( countries called Catholic' the free exercise of other 
religions may laudably be allowed. < Syllabus.' Prop, lxxviii. 

18. Or that the Eoman Pontiff ought to come to terms with progress, 
liberalism, and modern civilization. Ibid. Prop, lxxx. 1 

This list is now, perhaps, sufficiently extended, although I have as 
yet not touched the decrees of 1870. But, before quitting it, I must 
offer three observations on what it contains. ) | 



1 For the original passages from the Encyclical and Syllabus of Pius IX., see Appendix A. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



17 



I Firstly. I do not place all the propositions in one and the same 
category; for there are a portion of them which, as far as I can judge, 
might, by the combined aid of favorable construction and vigorous ex- 
planation, be brought within bounds. And I hold that favorable con- 
struction of the terms used in controversies is the right general rule. 
But this can only be so when construction is an open question. When 
the author of certain propositions claims, as in the case before us, a 
sole and unlimited power to interpret them in such manner and by 
such rules as he may from time to time think fit, the only defense 
for all others concerned is at once to judge for themselves how 
much of unreason or of mischief the words, naturally understood, 
may contain. 

Secondly. It may appear, upon a hasty perusal, that, neither the in- 
fliction of penalty in life, limb, liberty, or goods, on disobedient mem- 
bers of the Christian Church, nor the title to depose sovereigns and re- 
lease subjects from their allegiance, with all its revolting consequences, 
has been here reaffirmed. In terms, there is no mention of them; 
but in the substance of the propositions, I grieve to say, they are be- 
yond doubt included. For it is notorious that they have been declared 
and decreed by 6 Eome ' — that is to say, by Popes and Papal Councils ; 
and the stringent condemnations of the Syllabus include all those who 
hold that Popes and Papal Councils (declared oecumenical) have trans- 
gressed the just limits of their power, or usurped the rights ofprinces. 
What have been their opinions and decrees about persecution I need 
hardly say, and indeed the right to employ physical force is even here 
undisguisedly claimed (No. 7). 

Even while I am writing, I am reminded, from an unquestionable 
source, of the words of Pope Pius IX. himself on the deposing power. 
I add only a few italics ; the words appear as given in a translation, 
without the original : 

' The present Pontiff used these words in replying to the address from the ' ' Academia of 
the Catholic Religion" (July 21, 1873) : 

' " There are many errors regarding the Infallibility ; but the most malicious of all is that 
which includes, in that dogma, the right of deposing sovereigns, and declaring the people no 
longer bound by the obligation of fidelity. This right has now and again, in critical circum- 
stances, been exercised by the Pontiffs ; but it has nothing to do with Papal Infallibility. 
Its origin was not the infallibility, but the authority of the Pope. This authority, in accord- 
ance with public right, which was then vigorous, and with the acquiescence of all Christian 
nations, who reverenced in the Pope the supreme Judge of the Christian Commonwealth, 

B 



18 THE VATICAN DECREES 

extended so far as to pass judgment, even in civil affairs, on the acts of Princes and of Na- 
tions" ' 1 

Lastly. I must observe that these are not mere opinions of the Pope 
himself, nor even are they opinions which he might paternally recom- 
mend to the pious consideration of the faithful. With the promulga- 
tion of his opinions is unhappily combined, in the Encyclical Letter, 
which virtually, though not expressly, includes the whole, a command 
to all his spiritual children (from which command we the disobedient 
children are in no way excluded) to hold them. 

4 Itaque omnes et singulas pravas opiniones et doctrinas singillatim hisce literis commemo- 
ratas auctoritate nostra Apostolica reprobamus, proscribimus, atque, damnamus ; easque ab 
omnibus Catholicse Ecclesias filiis veluti reprobatas, proscriptas, atque damnatas omnino ha- 
beri volumus et mandamus.' — Encycl., Dec. 8, 1864. 

And the decrees of 1870 will presently show us what they establish 
as the binding force of the mandate thus conveyed to the Christian 
world. 

IV. The Third Proposition. 

.1 now pass to the operation of these extraordinary declarations on 
personal or private duty. 

When the cup of endurance, which had so long been filling, began, with 
the Council of the Vatican in 1870, to overflow, the most famous and 
learned living theologian of the Roman communion, Dr. von Do'llinger, 
long the foremost champion of his Church, refused compliance, and sub- 
mitted, with his temper undisturbed and his freedom unimpaired, to the 
extreme and most painful penalty of excommunication. With him many 
of the most learned and respected theologians of the Roman commun- 
ion in Germany underwent the same sentence. The very few who 
elsewhere (I do not speak of Switzerland) suffered in like manner de- 
serve an admiration rising in proportion to their fewness. It seems as 
though Germany, from which Luther blew the mighty trumpet that 
even now echoes through the land, still retained her primacy in the do- 
main of conscience, still supplied the centuria jprcerogativa of the great 
comitia of the world. 



1 Civilization and the See of Rome. By Lord Robert Montagu. Dublin, 1874. A lecture 
delivered under the auspices of the Catholic Union of Ireland. I have a little misgiving about 
the version, but not of a nature to affect the substance. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



19 



Bat let no man wonder or complain. Without imputing to any one 
the moral murder — for such it is — of stifling conscience and conviction, 
I for one can not be surprised that the fermentation which is working 
through the mind of the Latin Church has as jet (elsewhere than in 
Germany) but in few instances come to the surface. By the mass of 
mankind it is morally impossible that questions such as these can be 
adequately examined ; so it ever has been, and so in the main it will 
continue, until the principles of manufacturing machinery shall have 
been applied, and with analogous results, to intellectual and moral proc- 
esses. Followers they are and must be, and in a certain sense ought 
to be. But what as to the leaders of society, the men of education and 
of leisure ? I will try to suggest some answer in few words. A change 
of religious profession is under all circumstances a great and awful 
thing. Much more is the question, however, between conflicting or ap- 
parently conflicting duties arduous when the religion of a man has 
been changed for him, over his head, and without the very least of his 
participation. Far be it, then, from me to make any Koman Catholic, 
except the great hierarchic Power, and those who have egged it on, re- 
sponsible for the portentous proceedings which we have witnessed. My 
conviction is that, even of those who may not shake off the yoke, mul- 
titudes will vindicate at any rate their loyalty at the expense of the con- 
sistency, which perhaps in difficult matters of religion few among us 
perfectly maintain. But this belongs to the future ; for the present, 
nothing could in my opinion be more unjust than to hold the members 
of the Eoman Church in general already responsible for the recent 
innovations. The duty of observers, who think the claims involved in 
these decrees arrogant and false, and such as not even impotence, real 
or supposed, ought to shield from criticism, is frankly to state the case, 
and, by way of friendly challenge, to entreat their Boman Catholic 
fellow-countrymen to replace themselves in the position which five- 
and-forty years ago this nation, by the voice and action of its Parlia- 
ment, declared its belief that they held. 

Upon a strict re-examination of the language as apart from the sub- 
stance of my fourth proposition, I find it faulty, inasmuch as it seems 
to imply that a c convert' now joining the Papal Church not only gives 
up certain rights and duties of freedom, but surrenders them by a con- 
scious and deliberate act. What I have less accurately said that he re- 



20 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



nounced, I might have more accurately said that he forfeited. To speak 
strictly, the claim now made upon him by the authority which he 
solemnly and with the highest responsibility acknowledges requires 
him to surrender his mental and moral freedom, and to place his loyal- 
ty and civil duty at the mercy of another. There may have been, and 
may be, persons who in their sanguine trust will not shrink from this 
result, and will console themselves with the notion that their loyalty 
and civil duty are to be committed to the custody of one much wiser 
than themselves. But I am sure that there are also 'converts' who, 
when they perceive, will by word and act reject the consequence 
which relentless logic draws for them. If, however, my proposition be 
true, there is no escape from the dilemma. Is it, then, true, or is it not 
true, that Rome requires a convert who now joins her to forfeit his 
moral and mental freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil duty at 
the mercy of another ? 

In order to place this matter in as clear a light as I can, it will be 
necessary to go back a little upon our recent history. 

A century ago we began to relax that system of penal laws against 
Eoman Catholics, at once pettifogging, base, and cruel, which Mr. 
Burke has scathed and blasted with his immortal eloquence. 

When this process had reached the point at which the question was 
whether they should be admitted into Parliament, there arose a great 
and prolonged national controversy ; and some men, who at no time of 
their lives were narrow-minded, such as Sir Robert Peel, the Minister, 
resisted the concession. The arguments in its favor were obvious and 
strong, and they ultimately prevailed. But the strength of the oppos- 
ing party had lain in the allegation that, from the nature and claims of 
the Papal power, it was not possible for the consistent Roman Catho- 
lic to pay to the Crown of this country an entire allegiance, and that 
the admission of persons thus self -disabled to Parliament was incon- 
sistent with the safety of the State and nation, which had not very long 
before, it may be observed, emerged from a struggle for existence. 

An answer to this argument was indispensable ; and it was supplied 
mainly from two sources. The Josephine laws, 1 then still subsisting 



1 See the work of Count dal Pozzo on the Austrian Ecclesiastical Law. London, Mur- 
ray, 1827. The Leopoldine Laws in Tuscany may also be mentioned. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



21 



in the Austrian Empire, and the arrangements which had been made 
after the peace of 1815 by Prussia and the German States with Pius 
VII. and Gonsalvi. proved that the Papal Court could submit to cir- 
cumstances, and could allow material restraints even upon the exercise 
of its ecclesiastical prerogatives. Here, then, was a reply in the sense 
of the phrase solvitur ambulando. Much information of this class 
was collected for the information of Parliament and the country. 1 
But there were also measures taken to learn, from the highest Roman 
Catholic authorities of this country, what was the exact situation of the 
members of that communion with respect to some of the better known 
exorbitances of Papal assumption. Did the Pope claim any temporal 
jurisdiction ? Did he still pretend to the exercise of a power to depose 
kings, release subjects from their allegiance, and incite them to revolt? 
Was faith to be kept with heretics ? Did the Church still teach the 
doctrines of persecution ? Now, to no one of these questions could the 
answer really be of the smallest immediate moment to this powerful 
and solidly compacted kingdom. They were topics selected by way of 
sample ; and the intention was to elicit declarations showing generally 
that the fangs of the mediaeval Popedom had been drawn, and its claws 
torn away ; that the Roman system, however strict in its dogma, was 
perfectly compatible with civil liberty, and with the institutions of a 
free State moulded on a different religious basis from its own. 

Answers in abundance were obtained, tending to show that the doc- 
trines of deposition and persecution, of keeping no faith with heretics, 
and of universal dominion, were obsolete beyond revival ; that every 
assurance could be given respecting them, except such as required the 
shame of a formal retractation ; that they were in effect mere bugbears, 
unworthy to be taken into account by a nation which prided itself on 
being made up of practical men. 

But it was unquestionably felt that something more than the renun- 
ciation of these particular opinions was necessary in order to secure the 
full concession of civil rights to Roman Catholics. As to their indi- 
vidual loyalty, a State disposed to generous or candid interpretation 

1 See Report from the Select Committee appointed to Report the Nature and Substance of 
the Laivs and Ordinances existing in Foreign States respecting the Regulation of their Roman 
Catholic Subjects in Ecclesiastical Matters, and their Intercourse with the See of Rome, or 
any other Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. Printed for the House of Commons in 3816 
and 1817. Repvinted 1851. 



22 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



had no reason to be uneasy. It was only with regard to requisitions 
which might be made on them from another quarter that apprehension 
could exist. It was reasonable that England should desire to know 
not only what the Pope 1 might do for himself, but to what demands, 
by the Constitution of their Church, they were liable ; and how far it 
was possible that such demands could touch their civil duty. The 
theory which placed every human being, in things spiritual and things 
temporal, at the feet of the Roman Pontiff had not been an idolum 
speeds, a mere theory of the chamber. Brain power never surpassed 
in the political history of the world had been devoted for centuries to 
the single purpose of working it into the practice of Christendom ; had 
in the West achieved for an impossible problem a partial success ; and 
had in the East punished the obstinate independence of the Church by 
that Latin conquest of Constantinople which effectually prepared the 
way for the downfall of the Eastern Empire and the establishment of 
the Turks in Europe. What was really material therefore was, not 
whether the Papal Chair laid claim to this or that particular power, 
but whether it laid claim to some power that included them all, and 
whether that claim had received such sanction from the authorities of 
the Latin Church that there remained within her borders absolutely 
no tenable standing-ground from which war against it could be main- 
tained. Did the Pope, then, claim infallibility ? Or did he, either 
without infallibility or with it (and if with it so much the worse), 
claim a universal obedience from his flock ? And were these claims, 
either or both, affirmed in his Church by authority which even the 
least Papal of the members of that Church must admit to be binding 
upon conscience? 

The first two of these questions were covered by the third ; and well it 
was that they were so covered, for to them no satisfactory answer could 
even then be given. The Popes had kept up, with comparatively little 
intermission, for well-nigh a thousand years their claim to dogmatic in- 
fallibility; and had, at periods within the same tract of time, often 
enough made, and never retracted, that other claim which is theoretic- 



1 At that period the eminent and able Bishop Doyle did not scruple to write as follows : 
' We are taunted with the proceedings of Popes. What, my Lord, have we Catholics to do 
with the proceedings of Popes, or why should we be made accountable for them ?' — Essay on 
the Catholic Claims. To Lord Liverpool, 1826, p. 111. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 23 



ally less but practically larger — their claim to an obedience virtually 
universal from the baptized members of the Church. To the third 
question it was fortunately more practicable to prescribe a satisfactory 
reply. It was well known that, in the days of its glory and intellect- 
ual power, the great Gallican Church had not only not admitted, but 
had denied Papal infallibility, and had declared that the local laws 
and usages of the Church could not be set aside by the will of the 
Pontiff. Kay, further, it was believed that in the main these had 
been, down to the close of the last century, the prevailing opinions of 
the Cisalpine Churches in communion with Rome. The Council of 
Constance had in act as well as word shown that the Pope's judgments, 
and the Pope himself, were triable by the assembled representatives 
of the Christian world. And the Council of Trent, notwithstanding 
the predominance in it of Italian and Roman influences, if it had not 
denied, yet had not affirmed either proposition. 

All that remained was to know what were the sentiments entertain- 
ed on these vital points by the leaders and guides of Roman Catholic 
opinion nearest to our own doors. And here testimony was offered 
which must not and can not be forgotten. In part, this was the testi- 
mony of witnesses before the Committee of the House of Lords in 
1825. I need quote two answers only, given by the Prelate who more 
than any other represented his Church, and influenced the mind of this 
country in favor of concession at the time, namely, Bishop Doyle. 
He was asked : 1 

- In what, and how far, does the Roman Catholic profess to ohey the Pope ?' 

He replied : 

' The Catholic professes to ohey the Pope in matters which regard his -eligious faith, and in 
those matters of ecclesiastical discipline which have already been defined by the competent 
authorities.' 

And again : 

' Does that justify the objection that is made to Catholics that their allegiance is divided ?' 
' I do not think it does in any way. We are bound to obey the Pope in those things that I 
have already mentioned. But our obedience to the law, and the allegiance which we owe the 



1 Committees of both Lords and Commons sat — the former in 1825, the latter in 1824-5. 
The References were identical, and ran as follows : ' To inquire into the state of Ireland, more 
particularly with reference to the circumstances which may have led to disturbances in that 
part of the United Kingdom.' Bishop Doyle was examined March 21, 1825, and April 21, 
1825, before the Lords. . 



24 THE VATICAN DECREES 

Sovereign, are complete, and full, and perfect, and undivided, inasmuch as they extend to all 
political, legal, and civil rights of the King or of his subjects. I think the allegiance due to 
the King and the allegiance due to the Pope are as distinct and as divided in their nature as 
any two things can possibly be. ' 

Such is the opinion of the dead Prelate. We shall presently hear the 
opinion of a living one. But the sentiments of the dead man power- 
fully operated on the open and trustful temper of this people to induce, 
them to grant, at the cost of so much popular feeling and national tra- 
dition, the great and just concession of 1829. That concession, without 
such declarations, it would, to say the least, have been far more difficult 
to obtain. 

Now, bodies are usually held to be bound by the evidence of their 
own selected and typical witnesses. But in this instance the colleagues 
of those witnesses thought fit also to speak collectively. 

First let us quote from the collective ( Declaration,' in the year 
1826, of the Vicars Apostolic, who, with Episcopal authority, governed 
the Roman Catholics of Great Britain : 

' The allegiance which Catholics hold to be due, and are bound to pay, to their Sovereign, 
and to the civil authority of the State, is perfect and undivided. . . . 

' They declare that neither the Pope, nor any other Prelate or ecclesiastical person of the Eo- 
man Catholic Church, . . . has any right to interfere, directly or indirectly, in the civil govern- 
ment, . . . nor to oppose in any manner the performance of the civil duties which are due 
to the King.' 

Not less explicit was the Hierarchy of the Roman communion in its 
c Pastoral Address to the Clergy and Laity of the Roman Catholic Church 
in Ireland,' dated January 25, 1826. This address contains a declara- 
tion, from which I extract the following words : 

1 It is a duty which they owe to themselves, as v:ell as to their Protestant fellow-subjects, 
whose good opinion they value, to endeavor once more to remove the false imputations that 
have been frequently cast upon the faith and discipline of that Church which is intrusted to 
their care, that all may be enabled to know with accuracy their genuine principles.'' 

In Article 11 : 

' They declare on oath their belief that it is not an article of the Catholic Faith, neither are 
they thereby required to believe, that the Pope is infallible. ' 

And, after various recitals, they set forth : 

'After this full, explicit, and sworn declaration, we are utterly at a loss to conceive on what 
possible ground we could be justly charged with bearing toward our most gracious Sovereign 
only a divided allegiance.' 

Thus, besides much else that I will not stop to quote, Papal in- 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



25 



fallibility was most solemnly declared to be a matter on which each 
man might think as he pleased ; the Pope's power to claim obedience 
was strictly and narrowly limited : it was expressly denied that he had 
any title, direct or indirect, to interfere in civil government. Of the 
right of the Pope to define the limits which divide the civil from the 
spiritual by his own authority, not one word is said by the Prelates of 
either country. 

Since that time all these propositions have been reversed. The 
Pope's infallibility, when he speaks ex cathedra on faith and morals, 
has been declared, with the assent of the Bishops of the Roman Church, 
■ to be an article of faith, binding on the conscience of every Christian ; 
his claim to the obedience of his spiritual subjects has been declared 
in like manner without any practical limit or reserve ; and his suprem- 
acy, without any reserve of civil rights, has been similarly affirmed to 
include every thing which relates to the discipline and government of 
the Church throughout the world. And these doctrines, we now know 
on the highest authority, it is of necessity for salvation to believe. 

Independently, however, of the Vatican Decrees themselves, it is nec- 
essary for all who wish to understand what has been the amount of the 
wonderful change now consummated in the Constitution of the Latin 
Church, and what is the present degradation of its Episcopal order, to 
observe also the change, amounting to revolution, of form in the pres- 
ent, as compared with other conciliatory decrees. Indeed, that spirit 
of centralization, the excesses of which are as fatal to vigorous life in 
the Church as in the State, seems now nearly to have reached the last 
and furthest point of possible advancement and exaltation. 

When, in fact, we speak of the decrees of the Council of the Vatican, 
we use a phrase which will not bear strict examination. The Canons 
of the Council of Trent were, at least, the real Canons of a real Coun- 
cil ; and the strain in which they are promulgated is this : ITcec Sa- 
crosancta, ecumenica, et generalis Tridentina Synodus, in Spiritic 
Sancto legitime congregata, in ed prwsidentibus eisdem tribus ajpo- 
stolicis Zegatis, hortatur, or docet, or statuit, or decernit } and the like ; 
and its canons, as published in Rome, are c Canones et decreta Saero- 
sancti ecumenici Ooncilii Tridentini] 1 and so forth. But what we 



1 Romas : in Collegio urbano de Propaganda Fide. 1833. 



26 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



have now to do with is the Constitutio JDogmatica Prima de Ecclesid 
CJiristi, edita in Sessions tertid of the Vatican Council. It is not a 
constitution made by the Council, but one promulgated in the Council. 1 
And who is it that legislates and decrees? It is Pius Episcoj?us, servus 
servorum Dei ; and the seductive plural of his docemus et declaramus 
is simply the dignified and ceremonious 'We' of Royal declarations. 
The document is dated Pontificates nostri Anno XXV.: and the 
humble share of the assembled Episcopate in the transaction is repre- 
sented by saero ajrprobante concilio. And now for the Propositions 
themselves. 

First comes the Pope's infallibility : 

' Docemus, et divinitus revelatum dogma esse definimus, Eomanum Pontificem, cum ex 
Cathedra loquitur, id est cum, omnium Christianorum Pastoris et Doctoris muuere fungens, 
pro suprema sua Apostolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab universa. Ecclesia 
tenendam definit, per assistentiam diviuam, ipsi in Beato Petro promissam, ea infallibilitate 
pollere, qua Divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus 
instructam esse voluit : ideoque ejus Romani Pontificis definitiones ex sese non autem ex 
consensu Ecclesia? irreformabiles esse.' 2 

Will it, then, be said that the infallibility of the Pope accrues only 
when he speaks ex cathedra f Is o doubt this is a very material con- 
sideration for those who have been told that the private conscience is 
to derive comfort and assurance from the emanations of the Papal 
Chair: for there is no established or accepted definition of the phrase 
ex cathedra, and he has no power to obtain one, and no guide to direct 
him in his choice among some twelve theories on the subject, which, it 
is said, are bandied to and fro among Boman theologians, except the de- 
spised and discarded agency of his private judgment. But while thus 
sorely tantalized, he is not one whit protected. For there is still one 
person, and one only, who can unquestionably declare ex cathedra what 
is ex cathedra and what is' not, and who can declare it when and as he 
pleases. That person is the Pope himself. The provision is, that no 
document he issues shall be valid without a seal ; but the seal remains 
under his own sole lock and key. 



1 I am aware that, as some hold, this was the case with the Council of the Lateran in 
A. D. 1215. But, first, this has not been established ; secondly, the very gist of the evil we 
are dealing with consists in following (and- enforcing) precedents from the age of Pope Inno- 
cent IIP 

2 Constitutio de Ecclesid, c. iv. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



27 



Again, it may be sought to plead that the Pope is, after all, only op- 
erating by sanctions which unquestionably belong to the religious do- 
main. He does not propose to invade the country, to seize Woolwich 
or burn Portsmouth. He will only, at the worst, excommunicate op- p 
ponents, as he has excommunicated Dr. von Dollinger and others. Is 
this a good answer ? After all, even in the Middle Ages, it was not by 
the direct action of fleets and armies of their own that the Popes con- 
tended with kings who were refractory ; it was mainly by interdicts, 
and by the refusal, which they entailed when the Bishops were not 
brave enough to refuse their publication, of religious offices to the peo- 
ple. It was thus that England suffered under John, France under 
Philip Augustus, Leon under Alphonso the Noble, and every country 
in its turn. But the inference may be drawn that they w T ho, while 
using spiritual weapons for such an end, do not employ temporal means, 
only fail to employ them because they have them not. A religious so- 
ciety which delivers volleys of spiritual censure in order to impede the 
performance of civil duties does all the mischief that is in its power to 
do, and brings into question, in face of the State, its title to civil pro- 
tection. 

Will it be said, finally, that the Infallibility touches only matter of 
faith and morals \ Only matter of morals ! Will any of the Roman 
casuists kindly acquaint us what are the departments and functions of 
human life which do not and can not fall within the domain of morals ? 
If they will not tell us, we must look elsewhere. In his work entitled 
Literature and Dogma, 1 Mr. Matthew Arnold quaintly informs us — as 
they tell us nowadays how many parts of our poor bodies are solid and 
how many aqueous — that about seventy-five per cant, of all we do be- 
longs to the department of ' conduct.' Conduct and morals, we may 
suppose, are nearly co-extensive. Three fourths, then, of life are thus 
handed over. But who will guarantee to us the other fourth? Cer- 
tainly not St. Paul, who says, 6 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' And, ' Whatsoever ye 
do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.' 2 No ! 
Such a distinction would be the unworthy device of a shallow policy, 
vainly used to hide the daring of that wild ambition which at Rome, 



1 Pages 15, 44. 



2 1 Cor. x. 31 ; Col. iii. 7. 



28 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



not from- the throne, but from behind the throne, prompts the move- 
ments of the Vatican. I care not to ask if there be dregs or tatters of 
human life, such as can escape from the description and boundary of 
* morals. I submit that Duty is a power which rises with us in the 
morning, and goes to rest with us at night. It is co-extensive with the 
action of our intelligence. It is the shadow which cleaves to us go 
where we will, and which only leaves us when we leave the light of life. 
So, then, it is the supreme direction of us in respect to all Duty which 
the Pontiff declares to belong to him sacro approoante concilio ; and 
this declaration he makes, not as an otiose opinion of the schools, but 
cunctis fidelibus credendam et tenendam. 

But we shall now see that, even if a loophole had at this point been 
left unclosed, the void is supplied by another provision of the Decrees. 
While the reach of the Infallibility is as wide as it may please the 
Pope, or those who may prompt the Pope, to make it, there is some- 
thing wider still, and that is the claim to an absolute and entire Obedi- 
ence. This Obedience is to be rendered to his orders in the cases I shall 
proceed to point out, without any qualifying condition, such as the ex 
cathedra. The sounding name of Infallibility has so fascinated the 
public mind, and riveted it 'on the Fourth Chapter of the Constitution 
de Ecclesid, that its near neighbor, the Third Chapter, has, at least in 
my opinion, received very much less than justice. Let us turn to it : 

1 Cujuscunque ritus et dignitatis pastores atque fideles, tarn seorsum singuli quam simul 
omnes, officio hierarchies subordinationis vereeque obedientise obstringuntur, non solum in 
rebus, quae ad fidem et mores, set etiam in iis, quae ad disciplinam et regimen Ecclesise per 
totum orbem diffusee pertinent. . . . Hsec est Catholicse veritatis doctrina, a qua deviare, 
. salva fide atque salute, nemo potest. . . . 

' Docemus etiam et declaramus eum esse judicem supremum fidelium, et in omnibus causis 
ad examen ecclesiasticum spectantibus ad ipsius posse judicium recurri: Sedis vero Aposto- 
lical, cujus auctoritate major non est, judicium a nemine fore retractandum. Xeque cuiquam 
de ejus licere judicare judicio.' 1 

Even, therefore, where the judgments of the Pope do not present the 
credentials of Infallibility, they are unappealable and irreversible : no 
person may. pass judgment upon them ; and all men, clerical and lay, 
dispersedly or in the aggregate, are bound truly to obey them ; and 
from this rule of Catholic truth no man can depart, save at the peril of 
his salvation. Surely, it is allowable to say that this Third Chapter on 



1 Dogmatic Constitutions, etc., chap. iii. Dublin, 1870, pp. 30-32. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



universal Obedience is a formidable rival to the Fourth Chapter on In- 
fallibility. Indeed, to an observer from without, it seems to leave the 
dignity to the other, but to reserve the stringency and efficiency to it- 
self. The Third Chapter is the Merovingian Monarch ; the Fourth is 
the Carolingian Mayor of the Palace. The Third has an overawing 
splendor ; the Fourth, an iron grip. Little does it matter to me whether 
my superior claims infallibility, so long as he is entitled to demand and 
exact conformity. This, it will be observed, he demands even in cases 
not covered by his infallibility ; cases, therefore, in which he admits it 
to be possible that he may be wrong, but finds it intolerable to be told 
so. As he must be obeyed in all his judgments, though not ex cathe- 
dra, it seems a pity he could not likewise give the comforting assur- 
ance that they are all certain to be right. 

But why this ostensible reduplication — this apparent surplusage? 
Why did the astute contrivers of this tangled scheme conclude zhat 
they could not afford to rest content with pledging the Council to In- 
fallibility in terms which are not only wide to a high degree , but elastic 
beyond all measure ? 

Though they must have known perfectly well that 1 faith and morals' 
carried every thing, or every thing worth having, in the purely individual 
sphere, they also knew just as well that, even where the individual was 
subjugated, they might and w T ould still have to deal with the State. 

In mediaeval history, this distinction is not only clear, but glaring. 
Outside the borders of some narrow and proscribed sect, now and then 
emerging, we never, or scarcely -ever, hear of private and personal re- 
sistance to the Pope. The manful £ Protestantism ' of mediaeval times 
had its activity almost entirely in the sphere of public, national, and 
State rights. Too much attention, in my opinion, can not be fastened 
on this point. It is the very root and kernel of the matter. Individual 
servitude, however abject, will not satisfy the party now dominant in- 
the Latin Church : the State must also be a slave. " 

Our Saviour had recognized as distinct the two provinces of the civil 
rule and the Church ; had nowhere intimated that the spiritual author- 
ity was to claim the disposal of physical force, and to control in its own 
domain the authority which is alone responsible for external peace, 
order, and safety among civilized communities of men. It has been 
alike the peculiarity, the pride, and the misfortune of the Roman 



30 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



Church, among Christian communities, to allow to itself an unbounded 
use, as far as its power would go, of earthly instruments for spiritual 
ends. We have seen with what ample assurances 1 this nation and Par- 
liament were fed in 1826 ; how well and roundly the full and undivided 
rights of the civil power, and the separation of the two jurisdictions, 
were affirmed. All this had at length been undone, as far as Popes 
could undo it, in the Syllabus and the Encyclical. It remained to com- 
plete the undoing through the subserviency or pliability of the Council. 

And the work is now truly complete. Lest it should be said that 
supremacy in faith and morals, full dominion over personal belief and 
conduct, did not cover the collective action of men in States, a third 
province was opened, not indeed to the abstract assertion of Infallibil- 
ity, but to the far more practical and decisive demand of absolute Obe- 
dience. And this is the proper work of the Third Chapter, to which I 
am endeavoring to do a tardy justice. Let us listen again to its few 
but pregnant words on the point : 

'Non solum in rebus, quae ad fidem et mores, sed etiam in iis, quse ad disciplinam et regi- 
men Ecclesiae per totum orbem diffusa^ pertinent. ' 

Absolute obedience, it is boldly declared, is due to the Pope, at the 
peril of salvation, not alone in faith, in morals, but in all things which 
concern the discipline and government of the Church. Thus are swept 
into the Papal net whole multitudes of facts, whole systems of gov- 
ernment, prevailing, though in different degrees, in every country of 
the world. Even in the United States, where the severance between 
Church and State is supposed to be complete, a long catalogue might 
be drawn of subjects belonging to the domain and competency of the 
State,, but also undeniably affecting the government of the Church; 
such as, by way of example, marriage, burial, education, prison disci- 
pline, blasphemy, poor-relief, incorporation, mortmain, religious endow- 
ments, vows of celibacy, and obedience. In Europe the circle is far 
wider, the points of contact and of interlacing almost innumerable. But 
on all matters respecting which any Pope .may think proper to declare 
that they concern either faith or morals, or the government or disci- 
pline of the Church, he claims, with the approval of a Council un- 



1 See further, Appendix B. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



31 



doubtedly (Ecumenical in the Roman sense, the absolute obedience, at 
the peril of salvation, of every member of his communion. 

It seems not as yet to have been thought wise to pledge the Council 
in terms to the Syllabus and the Encyclical. That achievement is prob- 
ably reserved for some one of its sittings yet to come. In the mean- 
time it is well to remember that this claim in respect of all things af- 
fecting the discipline and government of the Church, as well as faith 
and conduct, is lodged in open, day by and in the reign of a Pontiff 
who has condemned free speech, free writing, a free press, toleration 
of nonconformity, liberty of conscience, the study of civil and philo- 
sophical matters in independence of the ecclesiastical authority, mar- 
riage unless sacramentally contracted, and the definition by the State 
of the civil rights (jura) of the Church ; who has demanded for the 
Church, therefore, the title to define its own civil rights, together with 
a divine right to civil immunities, and a right to use physical force ; 
and who has also proudly asserted that the Popes of the Middle Ages 
with their Councils did not invade the rights of princes : as for exam- 
ple, Gregory VII., of the Emperor Henry IV. ; Innocent III., of Ray- 
mond of Toulouse ; Paul III., in deposing Henry VIII. ; or Pius V., 
in performing the like paternal office for Elizabeth. 

I submit, then, that my fourth proposition is true ; and that England 
is entitled to ask, and to know, in what way the obedience required by 
the Pope and the Council of the Vatican is to be reconciled with the 
integrity of civil allegiance ? (i 

It has been shown that the Head of their Church, so supported as 
undoubtedly to speak with its highest authority, claims from Roman 
Catholics a plenary obedience to whatever he may desire in relation, 
not to faith, but to morals, and not only to these, but to all that concerns 
the government and discipline of the Church : that, of this, much lies 
within the domain of the State ; that, to obviate all misapprehension, 
the Pope demands for himself the right to determine the province of 
his own rights, and has so defined it in formal documents as to warrant 
any and every invasion of the civil sphere ; and that this new version 
of the principles of the Papal Church inexorably binds its members to 
the admission of these exorbitant claims, without any refuge or reser- 
vation on behalf of their duty to the Crown. 

Under circumstances such as these, it seems not too much to ask of 



32 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



them to confirm the opinion which we, as fellow-countrymen, entertain 
of them, by sweeping away, in such manner and terms as they may 
think best, the presumptive imputations which their ecclesiastical rulers 
at Rome, acting autocratically, appear to have brought upon their ca- 
pacity to pay a solid and undivided allegiance ; and to fulfill the en- 
gagement which their Bishops, as political sponsors, promised and de- 
clared for them in 1825. 

It would be impertinent, as well as -needless, to suggest what should 
be said. All that is requisite is to indicate in substance that which (if 
the foregoing argument be sound) is not wanted, and that which is. 
What is not wanted is vague and general assertion, of whatever kind, 
and however sincere. What is wanted, and that in the most specific 
form and the clearest terms, I take to be one of two things — that is to 
say, either : 

1. A demonstration that neither in the name of faith, nor in the name 
of morals, nor in the name of the government or discipline of the 
Church, is the Pope of Rome able, by virtue of the powers asserted for 
him by the Vatican Decree, to make any claim upon those who adhere 
to his communion of such a nature as can impair the integrity of their 
civil allegiance ; or else, 

II. That, if and when such claim is made, it will, even although rest- 
ing on the definitions of the Vatican, be repelled and rejected, just as 
Bishop Doyle, when he was askted what the Roman Catholic clergy 
would do if the Pope intermeddled with their religion, replied frankly : 
6 The consequences would be that we should oppose him by every means 
in our power, even by the exercise of our spiritual authority.' 1 

In the absence of explicit assurances to this effect, we should appear 
to be led, nay, driven, by just reasoning upon that documentary evidence, 
to the conclusions : 

/i 1. That the Pope, authorized by his Council, claims for himself the 
domain (a) of faith, (h) "of morals, (c) of all that concerns the govern- 
ment and discipline of the Church. 

2. That he in like manner claims the power of determining the limits 
of those domains. 

3. That he does not sever them, by any acknowledged or intelligible 
line, from the domains of civil duty and allegiance. 



1 Report, March 18, 1826, p. 191. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



33 



4. That he therefore claims, and claims from the month of July, 1870, 
onward, with plenary authority, from every convert and member of his 
Church, that he shall 6 place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of 
another :' that other being himself. /< 

v/l^eing True, ake the Propositions Material % 

But next, if these propositions be true, are they also material? The 
claims can not, as I much fear, be denied to have been made. It can 
not be denied that the Bishops, who govern in things spiritual more 
than five millions (or nearly one sixth) of the inhabitants of the United 
Kingdom, have in some cases promoted, in all cases accepted, these 
claims. It has been a favorite purpose of my life not to conjure up, 
but to conjure down, public alarms. I am not now going to pretend 
that either foreign foe or domestic treason can, at the bidding of the 
Court of Borne, disturb these peaceful shores. But though such fears 
may be visionary, it is more visionary still to suppose for one mo- 
ment that the claims of Gregory VII., of Innocent III., and of Boni- 
face VIII., have been disinterred, in the nineteenth century, like hid- 
eous mummies picked out of Egyptian sarcophagi, in the interests of 
archaeology, or without a definite and practical aim. As rational beings, 
we must rest assured that only with a very clearly conceived and fore- 
gone purpose have these astonishing reassertions been paraded before 
the world. What is that purpose % /# 

I can well believe that it is in part theological. There have always 
been, and there still are, no small proportion of our race, and those by 
no means in all respects the worst, who are sorely open to the temp- 
tation, especially in times of religious disturbance, to discharge their 
spiritual responsibilities bj power of attorney. As advertising houses 
find custom in proportion, not so much to the solidity of their resources 
as to the magniloquence of their promises and assurances, so theolog- 
ical boldness in the extension of such claims is sure to pay, by widening 
certain circles of devoted adherents, however it may repel the mass of 
mankind. There were two special encouragements to this enterprise 
at the present day : one of them the perhaps unconscious but manifest 
leaning of some, outside the Soman precinct, to undue exaltation of 
Church power ; the other the reaction which is and must be brought 
about in favor of superstition, by the levity of the destructive specula- 

C 



34 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



tions so widely current, and the notable hardihood of the anti-Christian 
writing of the day. 

But it is impossible to account sufficiently in this manner for the par- 
ticular course which has been actually pursued by the Roman Court. 
All morbid spiritual appetites would have been amply satisfied by 
claims to infallibility in creed, to the prerogative of miracle, to domin- 
ion over the unseen world. In truth there was occasion, in this view, 
for nothing except a liberal supply of Salmonean thunder : 

'Dum flammas Jovis, et sonitus imitatur Olympi.' 1 

All this could have been managed by a few Tetzels, judiciously dis- 
tributed over Europe. Therefore the question still remains, Why did 
that Court, with policy forever in its eye, lodge such formidable de- 
mands for power of the vulgar kind in that sphere which is visible, and 
where hard knocks can undoubtedly be given as well as received ? 

a It must be for some political object, of a very tangible kind, that the 
risks of so daring a raid upon the civil sphere have been deliberately 

1 run. 

A daring raid it is. For it is most evident that the very assertion 
of principles which establish an exemption from allegiance, or which 
impair its completeness, goes, in many other countries of Europe far 
more directly than with us, to the creation of political strife, and to 
dangers of the most material and tangible kind. The struggle now 
proceeding in Germany at once occurs to the mind as a palmary in- 
stance. I am not competent to give any opinion upon the particulars 
of that struggle. The institutions of Germany, and the relative esti- 
mate of State power and individual freedom, are materially different 
from ours. But I must say as much as this. Firstly, it is not Prussia 
alone that is touched ; elsewhere, too, the bone lies ready, though the 
contention may be delayed. n In other States, in Austria particularly, 
there are recent laws in force raising much the same issues as the Falck 
laws have raised. But the Roman Court possesses in perfection one 
art — the art of waiting ; and it is her wise maxim to fight but one enemy 
at a time. Secondly, if I have truly represented the claims promul- 
gated from the Vatican, it is difficult to deny that those claims, and the 



1 , En. vi.. 586. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



35 



power which has made them, are primarily responsible for the pains 
and perils, whatever they may be, of the present conflict between Ger- 
man and Roman enactments. And that which was Once truly said of 
France may now also be said with not less truth of Germany : when 
Germany is disquieted, Europe can not be at rest.* 

I should feel less anxiety on this subject -had the Supreme Pontiff 
frankly recognized his altered position since the events of 1870; and, 
in language as clear, if not as emphatic, as that in which he has pro- 
scribed modern civilization, given to Europe the assurance that he 
/would be no party to the re-establishment by blood and violence of the 
^Temporal Power of the Church. It is easy to conceive that his per- 
sonal benevolence, no less than his- feelings as an Italian, must have 
inclined him individually towards a course so humane — and I should 
add, if I might do it without presumption, so prudent. With what 
appears to an English eye a lavish prodigality, successive Italian Gov- 
ernments have made over the ecclesiastical powers and privileges of 
the Monarchy, not to the Church of the country for the revival of the 
ancient, popular, and self-governing elements of its constitution, but to 
the Papal Chair for the establishment of ecclesiastical despotism and 
the suppression of the last vestiges of independence. This course, so 
difficult for a foreigner to appreciate, or even to justify, has been met, 
not by reciprocal conciliation, but by a constant fire of denunciations 
and complaints. When the tone of these denunciations and complaints 
is compared with the language of the authorized and favored Papal 
organs in the press, and of the Ultramontane party (now the sole legit- 
imate party of the Latin Church) throughout Europe, it leads many to 
the painful and revolting conclusion that there is a fixed purpose among 
the secret inspirers of Roman policy to pursue, by the road of force, 
upon the arrival of any favorable opportunity, the favorite project of 
re-erecting the terrestrial throne of the Popedom, even if it can only 
be re-erected on the ashes of the city, and amid the whitening bones of 
\ the people. 1 

v> It is difficult to conceive or contemplate the effects of such an en- 
deavor. But the existence at this day of the policy, even in bare idea, 
is itself a portentous evil. I. do not hesitate to say that it is an incen- 



1 Appendix C. 



I 



36 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



tive to general disturbance, a premium upon European wars. It is, 
in my opinion, not sanguine only, but almost ridiculous to imagine that 
such a project could eventually succeed ; but it is difficult to overesti- 
mate the effect which it might produce in generating and exasperating 
strife. It might even, to some extent, disturb and paralyze the action 
of such Governments as might interpose for no separate purpose of their 
own, but only with a view to the maintenance or restoration of the 
general peace. If the baleful Power which is expressed by the phrase 
Curia Romana, and not at all adequately rendered in its historic force 
by the usual English equivalent ' Court of Rome,' really entertains 
the scheme, it doubtless counts on the support in every country of an 
organized and devoted party, which when it can command the scales of 
political power will promote interference, and when it is in a minori- 
ty will work for securing neutrality. As the peace of Europe may be in 
jeopardy, and as the duties even of England,' as one (so to speak) of its 
constabulary authorities, might come to be in question, it would be most 
interesting to know the mental attitude of our Roman Catholic fellow- 
countrymen in England and Ireland with reference to the subject ; and 
it seems to be one on which we are entitled to solicit information. 
N > For there can not be the smallest doubt that the temporal power of 
the Popedom comes within the true meaning of the words used at the 
Vatican to describe the subjects on which the Pope is authorized to 
claim, under lawful sanctions, the obedience of the ' faithful.' It is 
even possible that we have here the key to the enlargement of the prov- 
ince of Obedience beyond the limits of Infallibility, and to the intro- 
duction of the remarkable phrase ad discipli?iam et regimen JEcclesice. 
No impartial person can deny that the question of the Temporal Power 
very evidently concerns the discipline and government of the Church 
— concerns it, and most mischievously as I should venture to think; 
but in the opinion, up to a late date, of many Roman Catholics, not 
only most beneficially, but even essentially. Let it be remembered 
that such a man as the late Count Montalembert, who in his general 
politics was of the Liberal party, did not scruple to hold that the mill- 
ions of Roman Catholics throughout the world were copartners with 
the inhabitants of the States of the Church in regard to their civil gov- 
ernment; and, as constituting the vast majority, were of course entitled 
to override them. It was also rather commonly held, a quarter of a 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



37 



century ago, that the question of the States of the Church was one with 
which none but Roman Catholic Powers could have any thing to do. 
This doctrine, I must own, was to me at all times unintelligible. It is 
now, to say the least, hopelessly and irrecoverably obsolete. 

Archbishop Manning, who is the head of the Papal Church in En- 
gland, and whose ecclesiastical tone is supposed to be in the closest ac- 
cordance with that of his head-quarters, has not thought it too much to 
say that the civil order of all Christendom is the offspring of the Tem- 
poral Power, and has the Temporal Power for its keystone ; that on 
the destruction of the Temporal Power £ the laws of nations would at 
once fall in ruins that (our old friend) the deposing Power £ taught 
' subjects obedience and princes clemency.' 1 Nay, this high authority 
has proceeded further, and has elevated the Temporal Power to the 
rank of necessary doctrine. 

' The Catholic Church can not be silent — it can not hold its peace; it can not cease to preach 
the doctrines of Revelation, not only of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, but likewise of 
the Seven Sacraments, and of the Infallibility of the Church of God, and of the necessity of 
Unity, and of the Sovereignty, both spiritual and temporal, of the Holy See.' 2 

I never, for my own part, heard that the work containing this remark- 
able passage was placed in the i Index Prohibitorum Librorum.' On 
the contrary, its distinguished author was elevated, on the first oppor- 
tunity, to the headship of the Roman Episcopacy in England, and to 
the guidance of the million or thereabouts of souls in its communion. 
And the more recent utterances of the oracle have not descended from 
the high level of those already cited. They have, indeed, the recom- 
mendation of a comment, not without fair claims to authority, on the 
recent declarations of the Pope and the Council, and of one which goes 
to prove how far I am from having exaggerated or strained in the fore- 
going pages the meaning of those declarations. Especially does this 
hold good on the one point, the most vital of the whole — the title to 
define the border-line of the two provinces, which the Archbishop not 
unfairly takes to be the true criterion of supremacy as between rival 
powers like the Church and the State. 

'If, then, the civil power be not competent to decide the limits of the spiritual power, and 
if the spiritual power can define, with a divine certainty, its own limits, it is evidently su- 



1 Three Lectures on the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes, 1860, pp. 84, 46. 47, 58, 59, 63. 

2 The Present Crisis of the Holy See. By H. E. Manning, D.D. London, 1861, p. 73. 



38 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



preme. Or, in other words, the spiritual power knows, with divine certainty, the limits of 
its own jurisdiction : and it knows, therefore, the limits and the competence of the civil pow- 
er. It is thereby, in matters of religion and conscience, supreme. I do not see how this can 
be denied without denying Christianity. And if this be so, this is the doctrine of the Bull 
Unam Sanctam, 1 and of the Syllabus, and of the Vatican Council. It is, in fact, Ultramon- 
tanism, for this term means neither less nor more. The Church, therefore, is separate and 
supreme. 

'Let us, then, ascertain somewhat further what is the meaning of supreme. Any power 
which is independent^ and can alone fix the limits of its own jurisdiction, and can thereby fix 
the limits of all other jurisdictions, is, ipso facto, supreme. 2 But the Church of Jesus Christ, 
within the sphere of revelation, of faith and morals, is all this, or is nothing, or worse than 
nothing, an imposture and a usurpation — that is, it is Christ or Antichrist. ' 3 

But the whole pamphlet should be read by those who desire to know 
the true sense of the Papal declarations and Yatican Decrees, as they 
are understood by the most favored ecclesiastics ; understood, I am 
bound to own, so far as I can see, in their natural, legitimate, and in- 
evitable sense. Such readers will be assisted by the treatise in seeing 
clearly, and in admitting frankly that, whatever demands may hereafter, 
and in whatever circumstances, be made upon us, we shall be unable to 
advance with any fairness the plea that it has been done without due 
notice. 

There are millions upon millions of the Protestants of this country 
who would agree with Archbishop Manning if he were simply telling 
us that divine truth is not to be sought from the lips of the State, nor 
to be sacrificed at its command. But those millions would tell him, in 
return, that the State, as the power which is alone responsible for the 
external order of the world, can alone conclusively and finally be com- 
petent to determine what is to take place in the sphere of that external 
order. / / 

I have shown, then, that the Propositions, especially that which has 
been felt to be the chief one among them, being true, are also material ; 
material to be generally known, and clearly understood, and well con- 
sidered, on civil grounds ; inasmuch as they invade, at a multitude of 
points, the civil sphere, and seem even to have no very remote or shad- 
owy connection with the future peace and security of Christendom. 

1 On the Bull Unam Sanctam, 'of a most odious kind,' see Bishop Doyle's Essay, already' 
cited. He thus describes it. 

2 The italics are not in the original. 

3 Ccesarism and Ultramontanism. By Archbishop Manning, 1874, pp. 35, 36. 



IN THEIK BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



39 



VI. Were the Propositions Proper to be set forth by the 
Present Writer ? 

.There remains yet before us only the shortest and least significant 
portion of the inquiry, namely, whether these things, being true, and 
being material to be said, were also proper to be said by me. I must 
ask pardon if a tone of egotism be detected in this necessarily subordi- 
nate portion of my remarks. 

For thirty years, and in a great variety of circumstances, in office 
and as an independent Member of Parliament, in majorities and in 
small minorities, and during the larger portion of the time 1 as the rep- 
resentative of a great constituency, mainly clerical, I have, with others, 
labored to maintain and extend the civil rights of my Roman Catholic 
fellow-countrymen. The Liberal party of this country, with which I 
have been commonly associated, has suffered, and sometimes suffered 
heavily, in public favor and in influence, from the belief that it was too 
ardent in the pursuit of that policy ; while at the same time it has al- 
ways been in the worst odor with the Court of Rome, in consequence 
of its (I hope) unalterable attachment to Italian liberty and independ- 
ence. I have sometimes been the spokesman of that party in recom- 
mendations which have tended to foster, in fact, the imputation I have 
mentioned, though not to warrant it as matter of reason. But it has 
existed in fact. So that while (as I think) general justice to society 
required that these things which I have now set forth should be writ- 
ten, special justice, as toward the party to which I am loyally attached, 
and which I may have had a share in thus placing at a disadvantage 
before our countrymen, made it, to say the least, becoming that I should 
not shrink from writing them. 

In discharging that office, I have sought to perform the part, not of a 
theological partisan, but simply of a good citizen ; of one hopeful that 
many of his Roman Catholic friends and fellow-countrymen, who are, 
to say the least of it, as good citizens as himself, may perceive that the 
case is not a frivolous case, but one that merits their attention. 

I will next proceed to give the reason why, up to a recent date, I 
have thought it right in the main to leave to any others who might 
feel it the duty of dealing in detail with this question. 

1 From 184:7 to 18G5 I sat for the University k( Oxford. 



40 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



The great change which seems to me to have been brought about in 
the position of Roman Catholic Christians as citizens reached its con- 
summation and came into full operation in July, 1870, by the proceed- 
ings or so-called decrees of the. Vatican Council. 

Up to that time, opinion in the Roman Church on all matters involv- 
ing civil liberty, though partially and sometimes widely intimidated, 
was free wherever it was resolute. During the Middle Ages heresy 
was often extinguished in blood ; but in every Cisalpine country a prin- 
ciple of liberty, to a great extent, held its own, and national life re- 
fused to be put down. Nay more, these precious and inestimable gifts 
had not infrequently for their champions a local prelacy and clergy. 
The Constitutions of Clarendon, cursed from the Papal throne, were 
the work of the English Bishops. Stephen Langton, appointed direct- 
ly, through an extraordinary stretch of power, by Innocent III., to the 
See of Canterbury, headed the Barons of England in extorting from 
the Papal minion John, the worst and basest of all our sovereigns, that 
Magna Charta which the Pope at once visited with his anathemas. In 
the reign of Henry VIII., it was Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, who first 
wrote against the Papal domination. Tunstal was followed by Gardi- 
ner ; and even the recognition of the Royal Headship was voted by the 
clergy, not under Cranmer, but under his unsuspected predecessor "War- 
ham. Strong and domineering as was the high Papal party in those 
centuries, the resistance was manful. Thrice in history it seemed as if 
what we may call the Constitutional party in the Church was about to 
triumph : first, at the epoch of the Council of Constance ; secondly, 
when the French Episcopate was in conflict with Pope Innocent XI. ; 
thirdly, when Clement XIV. leveled w T ith the dust the deadliest foes 
that mental and moral liberty have ever known. But from July, 1870, 
this state of things has passed away, and the death-warrant of that Con- 
stitutional party has been signed, and sealed, and promulgated in form. 

Before that time arrived, although I had used expressions sufficiently 
indicative as to the tendency of things in the great Latin Communion, 
yet I -had for very many years felt it to be the first and paramount 
duty of the British Legislature, whatever Rome might say or do, to 
give to Ireland all that justice could demand in regard to matters of 
conscience and of civil equality, and thus to set herself right in the 
opinion of the civilized world. So far from seeing, what some believed 



I 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



41 



they saw, a spirit of unworthy compliance in such a course, it appeared 
to me the only one which suited either the dignity or the duty of my 
country. While this debt remained unpaid, both before and after 
1870, I did not think it my province to open formally a line of argu- 
ment on a cpiestion of prospective rather than immediate moment, 
which might have prejudiced the matter of duty lying nearest our 
hand, and morally injured Great Britain not less than Ireland, Church- 
men and Nonconformists not less than adherents of the Papal Com- 
munion, by slackening the disposition to pay the debt of justice. 
When Parliament had passed the Church Act of 1869 and the Land 
Act of 1870, there remained only, under the great head of Imperial 
equity, one serious question to be dealt with — that of the higher Edu- 
cation. I consider that the Liberal majority in the House of Com- 
mons, and the Government to which I had the honor and satisfaction 
to belong, formally tendered payment in full of this portion of the debt 
by the Irish University Bill of February, 1873. Some, indeed, think 
that it was overpaid : a question into which this is manifestly not the 
place to enter. But the Boman Catholic prelacy of Ireland thought fit 
to procure the rejection of that measure by the direct influence which 
they exercised over a certain number of Irish Members of Parliament, 
and by the temptation which they thus offered — the bid, in effect, which 
(to use a homely phrase) they made to attract the support of the Tory Op- 
position. Their efforts were crowned with a complete success. From 
that time forward I have felt that the situation was changed, and that 
important matters w T ould have to be cleared by suitable explanations. 
The debt to Ireland had been paid : a debt to the country at large had 
still to be disposed of, and this has come to be the duty of the hour. 
So long, indeed, as I continued to be Prime Minister, I should not 
have considered a broad political discussion on a general question suit- 
able to proceed from me ; while neither I nor (I am certain) my col- 
leagues would have been disposed to run the risk of stirring popular 
passions by a vulgar and unexplained appeal. But every difficulty 
arising from the necessary limitations of an official position has now 
been' removed. 



42 



THE VATICAN DECREES 



VII. On the Home Policy of the Futuke. 

I could not, however, conclude these observations without antici- 
pating and answering an inquiry they suggest. 'Are they, then,' it 
will be asked, 'a recantation and a regret? and what are they meant 
to recommend as the policy of the future?' My reply shall be suc- 
cinct, and plain. Of what the Liberal party has accomplished, by word 
or deed, in establishing the full civil equality of Roman Catholics, I 
regret nothing, and I recant nothing. 

It is certainly a political misfortune that, during the last thirty 
years, a Church so tainted in its views of civil obedience, and so un- 
duly capable of changing its front and language after Emancipation 
from what it had been before — like an actor who has to perform several 
characters in one piece — should have acquired an extension of its hold 
upon the highest classes of this country. The conquests have been 
chiefly, as might have been expected, among women ; but the number 
of male converts, or captives (as I might prefer to call them), has not 
been inconsiderable. There is no doubt that every one of these seces- 
sions is in the nature of a considerable moral and social severance. 
The breadth of this gap varies, according to varieties of individual char- 
acter. But it is too commonly a wide one. Too commonly the spirit 
of the neophyte is expressed by the words which have become notori- 
ous : 'A Catholic first, an Englishman afterwards.' Words which prop- 
erly convey no more than a truism ; for every Christian must seek to 
place his religion even before his country in his inner heart. But very 
far from a truism in the sense in which we have been led to construe 
them. We take them to mean that the 'convert' intends, in case of 
any conflict between the Queen and the Pope, to follow the Pope, and 
let the Queen shift for herself ; which, happily, she can well do. 

Usually, in this country, a movement in the highest class would raise 
a presumption of a similar movement in the mass. It is not so here. 
Rumors have gone about that the proportion of members of the Papal 
Church to the population has increased, especially in England. But 
these rumors would seem to be confuted by authentic figures. The 
Roman Catholic Marriages, which supply a competent test, and which 
were 4.89 per cent, of the whole in 1854, and 4.62 per cent, in 1859, 
were 4.09 per cent, in 1869, and 4.02 per cent, in 1871. 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 43 

There is something at the least abnormal in such a partial growth, 
taking effect as it does among the wealthy and noble, while the people 
can not be charmed, by any incantation, into the Roman camp. The 
original Gospel was supposed to be meant especially for the poor ; but 
the gospel of the nineteenth century from Rome courts another and 
less modest destination. If the Pope does not control more souls 
among us, he certainly controls more acres. 

The severance, however, of a certain number of lords of the soil 
from those who till it can be borne. And so I trust will in like man- 
ner be endured the new and very real i aggression' of the principles 
promulgated by Papal authority, whether they are or are not loyally 
disclaimed. In this matter each man is his own judge and his own 
guide : I can speak for myself. vV I am no longer able to say, as I 
would have said before 1870, 'There is nothing in the necessary be- 
lief of the Roman Catholic which can appear to impeach his full civil 
title; for, whatsoever be the follies of ecclesiastical power in his 
Church, his Church itself has not required of him, w T ith binding au- 
thority, to assent to any principles inconsistent with his civil duty.' 
That ground is now, for the present at least, cut from under my feet. 
What, then, is to be our course of policy hereafter ? First, let me say 
that, as regards the great Imperial settlement, achieved by slow de- 
grees, which has admitted men of all creeds subsisting among us to 
Parliament, that I conceive to be so determined beyond all doubt or 
question as to have become one of the deep foundation-stones of the 
existing Constitution. But inasmuch as, short of this great charter of 
public liberty, and independently of all that has been done, there are 
pending matters of comparatively minor moment which have been, or 
may be, subjects of discussion, not without interest attaching to them, 
I can suppose a question to arise in the minds of some. My own 
views and intentions in the future are of the smallest significance. 
But, if the arguments I have here offered make it my duty to declare 
them, I say at once the future will be exactly as the past : in the little 
that depends on me, I shall be guided hereafter, as heretofore, by the 
rule of maintaining equal civil rights irrespectively of religious differ- 
ences ; and shall resist all attempts to exclude the members of the Ro- 
man Church from the benefit of that rule. Indeed, I may say that I 
have already given conclusive indications of this view, by supporting 



44 



THE VATICAN DECEEES 



in Parliament, as a Minister, since 1870, the repeal of the Ecclesiastical 
Titles Act, for what I think ample reasons. Not only because the time 
has not yet come when we can assume the consequences of the rev- 
olutionary measures of 1870 to have been thoroughly weighed and 
digested by all capable men in the Roman Communion. Not only 
because so great a numerical proportion are, as I have before observed, 
necessarily incapable of mastering, and forming their personal judg- 
ment upon, the case. Quite irrespectively even of these considera- 
tions, I hold that our onward even course should not be changed by 
follies, the consequences of which, if the worst come to the worst, this 
country will have alike the power and, in case of need, the will to 
control. The State will, I trust, be ever careful to leave the domain 
of religious conscience free, and yet to keep it to its own domain; and 
to allow neither private caprice nor, above all, foreign arrogance to 
dictate to it in the discharge of its proper office. ' England expects 
every man to do his duty ;'. and none can be so well prepared under all 
circumstances to exact its performance as that Liberal party which has 
done the work of justice alike for Nonconformists and for Papal dis- 
sidents, and whose members have so often, for the sake of that work, 
hazarded their credit with the markedly Protestant constituencies of 
the country. Strong the State of the United Kingdom has always 
been in material strength ; and its moral panoply is now, we may hope, 
pretty complete. 

It is not, then, for the dignity of the Crown and people of the Unit- 
ed Kingdom to be diverted from a path which they have deliberately 
chosen, and which it does not rest with all the myrmidons of the Apos- 
tolic Chamber either openly to obstruct or secretly to undermine. It 
is rightfully to be expected, it is greatly to be desired, that the Roman 
Catholics of this country should do in the Nineteenth century what 
their forefathers of England, except a handful of emissaries, did in the 
Sixteenth, when they were marshaled in resistance to the Armada, and 
in the Seventeenth, when, in despite of the Papal Chair, they sat in the 
House of Lords under the Oath of Allegiance. That which we are 
entitled to desire, we are entitled also to expect : indeed, to say we did 
not expect it would in my judgment be the true way of conveying an 
' insult ' to those concerned. In this expectation we may be partially 
disappointed. Should those to whom I appeal thus unhaorjily come to 



IN THEIR BEARING ON CIVIL ALLEGIANCE. 



45 



bear witness in their own persons to the decay of sound, manly, true 
life in their Church, it will be their loss more than ours. The inhabit- 
ants of these Islands, as a whole, are stable, though sometimes credu- 
lous and excitable ; resolute, though sometimes boastful : and a strong- 
headed and sound-hearted race will not be hindered, either by latent 
or by avowed dissents, due to the foreign influence of a caste, from 
the accomplishment of its mission in the world. 



APPENDICES. 



APPENDIX A. 

The numbers here given correspond with those of the Eighteen Propositions 
given in the text, where it toould have been less convenient to cite the 
originals. 

1,2,3. 'Ex qua omnino falsa socialis regiminis idea haud tiraent er- 
roneam illam fovere opinionem, Catholicse Ecclesiaa, animarumque saluti 
maxime exitialem, a rec. mem. Gregorio XIV. praedecessore Nostro deli- 
r amentum appellatam (eadeni Encycl. mirari), nimirum, libertatem con- 
scientiae et cultuum esse proprium cujuscunque hominis jus, quod lege 
proclamari, et asseri debet in omni recte constitute societate, et jus civi- 
bus inesse ad omnimodam libertatem nulla vel ecclesiastica, vel eivili 
auctoritate coarctandam, quo suos conceptus quoscumque sive voce sive 
typis, sive alia ratione palam publiceque manifestare ac declarare valeant.' 
— Encyclical Letter. 

4. 'Atque silentio prseterire non possumus eorum audaciam, qui sanam 
non sustinentes doctrinam " illis Apostolicaa Sedis judiciis, et decretis, 
quorum objectum ad bonum generale Ecclesise, ejusdemque jura, ac dis- 
ciplinam spectare declaratur, dummodo fidei morumque dogmata non 
attingat, posse assensum et obedientiam detrectari absque peccato, et 
absque ulla Catholicse professionis jactura." ' — Ibid. 

5. ' Ecclesia non est vera" perfectaque societas plane libera, nec pollet 
suis propriis et constantibus juribus sibi a divino suo Fundatore collatis, 
sed civilis potestatis est definire quaa sint Ecclesia3 jura, ac limites, intra 
quos eadem jura exercere queat.' — Syllabus v. 

6. ' Romani Pontifices et Concilia oecumenica a liraitibus suae potesta- 
tis recesserunt, jura Principum usurparunt, atque etiam in rebus fidei et 
morum definiendis errarunt.' — Ibid, xxiii. 

7. 'Ecclesia vis inferendae potestatem ncm habet, neque potestatem 
ullam temporalem directam vel indirectam.' — Ibid. xxiv. 

8. 'Prseter potestatem episcopatui inhaerentem, alia est attributa tem- 



48 



APPENDICES. 



poralis potestas a civili imperio vel expresse vel tacite concessa, revocan- 
da propterea, cum libuerit, a civili imperio.' — Syllabus xxv. 

9. 'Ecclesiae et personarum ecclesiasticarum immunitas a jure civili 
ortum habuit.' — Ibid. xxx. 

10. 'In conilictu legum utriusque potestatis, jus civile praevalet.' — 
Ibid, xlii. 

11. ' Catholicis viris probari potest ea juventutis instituendsB ratio, qua3 
sit a Catholica fide et ab Ecclesise potestate sejuncta, quseque rerum dum- 
taxat, naturalium scientiam ac terrense socialis vitse fines tantummodo vel 
saltern primarium spectet.' — Ibid, xlviii. 

12. 'Philosophicarum rerum morumque scientia, itemque civiles leges 
possunt et debent a divina et ecclesiastica auctoritate declinare.' — 
Ibid. lvii. 

13. 'Matrimonii sacramentum non est nisi contractui accessorium ab 
eoque separabile, ipsumque sacramentum in una tantum nuptiali benedic- 
tione situm est.' — Ibid. lxvi. 

' Yi contractus mere civilis potest inter Christianos constare veri nomi- 
nis matrimonium ; falsumque est, aut contractum matrimonii inter Chris- 
tianos semper esse sacramentum, aut nullum esse contractum, si sacramen- 
tum excludatur.' — Ibid, lxxiii. 

14. 'De temporalis regni cum spirituali compatibilitate disputant inter 
se Christians et Catholicae Ecclesise filii.' — Ibid. lxxv. 

15. 6 Abrogatio civilis imperii, quo Apostolica Secies potitur, ad Ecclesiae 
libertatem felicitatemque vel maxime conduceret.' — Ibid, lxxvi. 

16. £ iEtate hac nostra non amplius expedit religionem Catholicam 
haberi tanquam unicam status religionem, cseteris quibuscumque cultibus 
exclusis.' — Ibid, lxxvii. 

17. 'Hinc laudabiliter in quibusdam Catholici nominis regionibus lege 
cautum est, ut hominibus iliac immigrantibus liceat publicum proprii 
cuj usque cultus exercitium habere.' — Ibid, lxxviii. 

18. ' Romanus Pontifex potest ac debet cum progressu, cum liberalismo 
et cum recenti civilitate sese reconciliare et componere.' — Ibid. lxxx. 



APPENDIX B. 

I have contented myself with a minimum of citation from the docu- 
ments of the period before Emancipation. Their full effect can only be 
gathered by such as are acquainted with, or will take the trouble to re- 
fer largely to, the originals. It is worth while, however, to cite the fol- 



APPENDICES. 



49 



lowing passage from Bishop Doyle, as it may convey, through the indig- 
nation it expresses, an idea of the amplitude of the assurances which had 
been (as I believe, most honestly and sincerely) given : 

'There is no justice, my Lord, in thus condemning us. Such conduct 
on the part of our opponents creates in our bosoms a sense of wrong be- 
ing done to us; it exhausts our patience, it provokes our indignation, 
and prevents us from reiterating our efforts to obtain a more impartial 
hearing. We are tempted, in such cases as these, to attribute unfair 
motives to those who differ from us, as we can not conceive how men 
gifted with intelligence can fail to discover truths so plainly demon- 
strated as — 

'That our faith or our allegiance is not regulated by any such doc- 
trines as those imputed to us ; 

'That our duties to the Government of our country are not influenced 
nor affected by any Bulls or practices of Popes ; 

'That these duties are to be learned by us, as by every other class of 
His Majesty's subjects, from the Gospel, from the reason given to us by 
God, from that love of country which nature has implanted in our hearts, 
and from those constitutional maxims which are as well understood and 
as highly appreciated by Catholics of the present day as by their an- 
cestors, who founded them with Alfred, or secured them at Runnymede.' 
— Doyle's Essay on the Catholic Claims, London, 1826, p. 38. 

The same general tone as in 1826 was maintained in the answers of 
the witnesses from Maynooth College before the Commission of 1855. 
See, for example, pp. 132, 161-4, 272-3, 275, 361, 370-5, 381-2, 394-6, 405. 
The Commission reported (p. 64),' We see no reason to believe that there- 
has been any disloyalty in the teaching of the College, or any disposition 
to impair the obligations of an unreserved allegiance to your Majesty.' 



APPENDIX C. 

Compare the recent and ominous forecasting of the future European 
policy of the British Crown, in an article from a Romish Periodical for 
the current month, which has direct relation to these matters, and which 
has every appearance of proceeding from authority : 

' Surely in any European complication, such as may any day arise, nay, 
such as must ere long arise, from the natural gravitation of the forces, 
which are for the moment kept in check and truce by the necessity of 
preparation for their inevitable collision, it may very well be that the 

D 



50 



APPENDICES. 



future prosperity of England may be staked in the struggle, and that the 
side which she may take may be determined, not either by justice or in- 
terest, but by a passionate resolve to keep up the Italian kingdom at any 
hazard.'' — The Month for November, 1874: 'Mr. Gladstone's Durham 
Letter,' p. 265. 

This is a remarkable disclosure. With whom could England be 
brought into conflict by any disposition she might feel to keep up the 
Italian kingdom ? Considered as States, both Austria and France are in 
complete harmony with Italy. But it is plain that Italy has some en- 
emy; and the writers of the Month appear to know who it is. 



APPENDIX D. 

Notice has been taken, both in this country and abroad, of the appar- 
ent inertness of public men, and of at least one British Administration, 
with respect to the subject of these pages. See Friedberg, Grenzen 
zwischen Staat und JTirehe, Abtheilung iii. pp. 755-6 ; and the Preface to 
the Fifth Volume of Mr. Greenwood's elaborate, able, and judicial work 
entitled Cathedra Petri, p. iv. 

If there be any chance of such a revival, it would become our political 
leaders to look more closely into the peculiarities of a system which de- 
nies the right of the subject to freedom of thought and action upon mat- 
ters most material to his civil and religious welfare. There is no mode 
of ascertaining the spirit and tendency of great institutions but in a care- 
ful study of their history. The writer is profoundly impressed with the 
conviction that our political instructors have wholly neglected this im- 
portant duty; or, which is perhaps worse, left it in the hands of a class 
of persons whose zeal has outrun their discretion, and who have sought 
rather to engage the prejudices than the judgment of their hearers in the 
cause they have, no doubt sincerely, at heart. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL, 

TOGETHER WITH THE LATIN AND ENGLISH TEXT OE THE 

PAPAL SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN DECREES. 

BY THE 

Rev. PHILIP S CHAFF, D.D. 

FROM HIS FORTHCOMING c HISTORY OF THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM, 



CONTENTS- 



PAGE 

I. A History of the Vatican Council 51 

Literature 53 

Call of the Council. Its Aim 55 

Opening of the Council 58 

Attendance and Composition 59 

Rules. Private and Public Sessions 60 

Papal Management and Control t 61 

Proceedings . . . . . , 63 

Importance. Claim to (Ecumenicity 65 

The Vatican Decrees : 

1. The Constitution of the Catholic Faith 66 

2. The Infallibility Decree 69 

Papal Infallibility Explained and Tested 82 

Ultramontanism and Gallicanism 86 

Papal Infallibility and Personal Responsibility 88 

Papal Infallibility and Tradition 90 

Papal Infallibility and the Bible 102 

II. The Papal Syllabus of 1864 109 

(In Latin, with English Translation.) 

III. The Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council of 1870.. 131 
(In Latin, with English Translation.) 



HISTORY OF THE YATICAN COUNCIL. 



LITERATURE. 

I. WOEKB PEEOEDING THE COUNCIL. 

Officielle Actenstucke zu dem von Sr. Heiligkeit dem Papste Pius IX. nach Rom bervfenen Oekumenischen 
Concil, Berlin, 1S69 (pp. 189). This work contains the Papal Encyclica of 186-i, and the various papal 
letters and official documents preparatory to the Council, iD Latin and German. 

Chronique concernant le Prochain Concile. Traduction revue et approuvee de la Civiltd cattolica par la 
correspondance de Rome, Vol. I. Avant le Concile. Rome, Deuxieme ed. 1869, fol. (pp. 192). Begins with 
the Papal letter of June 26, 1867. 

Heney En ward Manning (Archbishop of Westminster) : The Centenary of St. Peter and the General 
Council. A Pastoral Letter. London, 1867. Also in Italian {tipog. delta Civiltd cattolica). In favor of In- 
fallibility. 

C. H. A. Plantiee (Bishop of Nimes) : Stir les t Conciles generaux d V occasion de celui que Sa Saintete Pie 
IX. a convoque pour le 8 decembre prochain, Nimes et Paris, 1869. The same in German : Ueber die allge- 
meinen Kirchenversammlungen, translated by Th. von Lamezan, Freiburg im Breisgan, 1869. Infallibilist. 

Mage. Vict. Aeg. Dechamps (Archbishop of Malines) : LHnfaillxbilite et le Concile general, 2d ed,, Paris 
et Malines, 1S69. German translation : Die Unfehlbarkeit des Papstes unci das Allgemeine Concil, Mainz, 
1S69. Strong Infallibilist. 

H. L. C. Maeet (Dean of the Theol. Faculty of Paris) : Du Concile general et de la paix religieuse, Paris, 
1869, 2 vols. Against Infallibility. Has since recanted. 

W. Emmanuel Feeiheee von Kettelee (Bishop of Mayence) : Das Allgemeine Concil und seine Bedeu- 
tungfur unsere Zeit, 4th ed. Mainz, 1S69. First against, now in favor of Infallibility. 

Dr. Joseph Fesslee (Bishop of St. Polten and Secretary of the Vatican Council, d. 1872) : Das letzte tind 
das nuchste Allgemeine Concil, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1S69. 

F. Dutanloup (Bishop of Orleans) : Lettre sur le futur Concile (Ecumenique, in French, German, and 
other languages, 1869. The same on the Infallibility of the Pope. First against, then in favor of the new 
dogma. 

Der Papst und das Concil von Janes, Leipzig, 1869. Several editions. The same in English : The Pope 
and the Council, by Janes, London, 1S69. In opposition to the Jesuit programme of the Council, from 
the liberal (old) Catholic stand-point; probably the joint production of Profs. Dollingeb, Feiedeich, 
and Hebee, of the University of Munich. 

Dr. J. Heegeneothee (R. C.) : Anti- Janus, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1S70. Also in English, by J. B. Rob- 
eetson, Dublin, 1870. 

Reform der Rim. Kirche in Haupt und Gliedern Aufgabe des bevorstehenden Rom. Concils, Leipz. 1S09. 
[By Prof, von Shelte, of Prague.] Liberal Catholic. 

Felix Bengenee (Prot.) : Rome and tJie Council in the Nineteenth Century. Translated from the French, 
with additions by the Author. Edinb. 1870. (Conjectures as to what the Council will be, to judge from the 
Papal Syllabus and the past history of the Papacy.) 

II. Repoets deeing the Council. 

The Civiltd catholica, of Rome, for 1S69 and 1870. Chief organ of the Jesuits and Infallibilists. 

Louis Veuillot: Rome pendant le Concile, Paris, 1870, 2 vols. Collection of his correspondence to 
his journal, VUnivers, of Paris. Ultra-Infallibilist and utterly unscrupulous. 

J. Feiedeich (Prof, of Church History in Munich, lib. Cath.) : Tagebuch wuhrend des Vaticanischen Con- 
cils gefuhrt, Nodlingen, 1871. A journal kept during the Council, and noting the facts, projects, and ru- 
mors as they came to the surface. The author, a colleague and intimate friend of Dollinger, has since 
been excommunicated. 

Loet) Acton (liberal Catholic) : Zur Geschichte des Vatican. Concils, first published in the Xorth British 
Review for October, 1870 (under the title : TheVatican Council, pp. 95-120 of the Amer. reprint), translated 
by Dr. Reischl, at Munich, 1S71. 



54 



HISTORY OE THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Quieintts : Letters from Rome on the Council, first in the Angst). Allgemeine Zeitung, and then in a sep- 
arate volume, Munich, 1870; also in English, London, 1870 (pp. S56). Letters of three liberal Catholics, 
of different nations, who had long resided in Rome, and, during the Council, communicated to each 
other all the information they could gather from members of the Council, and sent their letters to a 
friend in Germany for publication in the Augsburg General Gazette. 

Compare against Quirinus: Die Unwahrheiten der Romischen Brief e torn Concil in der Allg. Zeitung, 
von W. Emmanuel Feeiheebn von Kettelee (Bishop of Mayence), 1870. 

Ce qui se passe au Concile. Dated April 10, 1S70. Troisieme ed. Paris, 1870. [By Jules Gaillaeb.] 

La derniere heure du Concile, Paris, 1870. [By a member of the Council.] The last two works were 
denounced as a calumny by the presiding Cardinals in the session, July 16, 1870. 

Also the Reports during the Council in the Giornale di Roma, the Turin TJnitd catholica, the London 
Times, the London (R. C.) Tablet, the Dublin Review, the New York Tribune, and other leading period- 
icals. 

III. The Acts and Proceedings of the Council. 
(1.) Roman Catholic (Infallibilist) Sources. 

Acta et Deer eta sacrosancti et oecumenici Concilii Vaticani die 8 Dec. 1S69 a ss. D. X. Pio TX. inchoati. 
Cum p&rmissione superiorum, Friburgi Brisgoviae, 1871, in 2 Parts. The first part contains the Papal 
Encyclica with the Syllabus and the acts preparatory to the Council ; the second, the public acts of the 
Council itself, with a list of the dioceses of the Roman Church and the members of the Vatican Council. 

Actes et histoire du Concile cecumenique de Rome, premier du Vatican, ed. under the auspices of Victor 
Frond, Paris, 1S69 sqq. 6 vols. Includes extensive biographies of Pope Pius IX. and his Cardinals, etc., 
with portraits. Vol. VI. contains the Actes, decrets et documents reccuillis et mis en ordrepar M. Pelletier, 
chanoine d' Orleans. Each vol. costs 100 francs. 
. Atti ufficialli del Concilio ecumenico, Turino, pp. 682 (? 1S70). 

Officielle Actenstucke zu dem von Sr. Heiligkeit dem Papst Pius IX. nach Rom berufenen Oekumenischen 
Concil, Zweite Sammlung, Berlin, 1S70. 

Das Oekumenische Concil. Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, Xeue Folge. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1S70. A se- 
ries of discussions in defense of the Council by Jesuits (Florian Riess, and K. v. Weber). 

Heney Edwaed Manning (R. C. Archbishop of Westminster) : The Vatican Council and its Definitions. 
A Pastoral Letter to his Clergy. London and New York, 1.871. A defense of the two Constitutions of the 
Council de fide and de ecclesia. This, together with two other Pastoral Letters on the Council (quoted 
p. 134), are also published in one volume under the joint title Petri Privilegium, Lond. 1871. 

Bp. Jos. Fesslee (Secretary of the Vatican Council) : Das Vaticanische Concil, dessen dussere Bedeutung 
und innerer Verlauf, Wien, 1S71. 

The stenographic reports of the speeches of the Council are still locked up in the archives of the Vat- 
ican. 

(2.) Old Catholic (anti-Infallibilist). 
Joh. Feiedeich: Documenta ad illustrandum Concilium Vaticanum anni 1870, Nordlingen, 1S71, in 2 
Parts. Contains official and unofficial documents bearing on the Council and the various schemata de 
fide, de ecclesia, etc. Compare his Tagebuch xvuhrend des Vaticanischen Ccneils gefuhrt, sfbove quoted, 
and his Zur Vertheidigung meines Tagebuchs. Offener Brief an P. R. Comely, Priester der Gesellschaft 
Jesu, Nordl. 1872. 

Joh. Feiedeich Rittee von Scuulte (Prof, of Canon Law in the University of Prague, now in Bonn) : 
Das Unfehlbarkeitsdecret vom 18 Juli 1870 . . . geprdft, Prag, 1S71. Also, Die Macht der Rom. Pdpste iiber 
Fiirsten, Lander, Volker, Individuen, etc., Prag, 2d ed. 1871. 

Stimmen aus der katholischen Kirche uber die Kirchenfragen der Gegenicart, Munchen,lS70 sqq. 2 vols. 
A series of discussions against the Vatican Council, by Dullingee, Hubee, Sciimitz, Feiedeich, Rbin- 
ke> t s, and Hotzl. 

(3.) Protestant. 

Dr. Emil Feiedbeeg (Prof, of Ecclesiastical Law in Leipzig) : Sammlung tier Actenstucke zum ersten 
Vaticanischen Concil, mit einem Grundriss der Geschichte desselben, Tubingen, 1872 (pp. 954). Very valu- 
able ; contains all the important documents, and a full list of works on the Council. 

Theod. Feommann (Privatdocent in Berlin) : Geschichte und Kritik des Vaticanischen Concils von 1869 
und 1870, Gotha, 1872 (pp. 529). 

E. de Peessense (Ref. Pastor in Paris) : Le Concile du Vatican, son histoire et ses consequences politiques 
et religieuses, Paris, 1S72. Also in German, by Fabarius, Nordlingen, 1872. 

L. W. Bacon : An Inside View of the Vatican Council, New York, 1S72 (Amer. Tract Society). Contains 
a translation of Archbishop Kenrick's speech against Infallibility, with a sketch of the Council, and 
several documents. 

An extensive criticism on the Infallibility decree in the third edition of Dr. Hase's Handbuch der Prot- 
estant. Polemik gegen die romisch-katholische Kirche, Leipz. 1871, pp. 155-200. Comp. pp. 24-37. 

[The above are only the most important works of the large and increasing literature, historical, apol- 
ogetic, and polemic, on the Vatican Council. A. Erlecke, in a pamphlet, Die Literatur des rom. Concils, 
gives a list of over 200 books and pamphlets which appeared in Germany alone till the close of 1870. 
Friedberg notices in all no less than 1041 writings on the subject till June 1872. His lists are classified 
and very accurate.] 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



55 



More than three hundred years after the close of the Council of 
Trent, Pope Pius IX., who had proclaimed the new dogma of the 
Immaculate Conception, who in the presence of five hundred Bishops had 
celebrated the eighteenth centennial of the martyrdom of the Apostles 
Peter and Paul, and who was permitted to survive not only the golden 
wedding of his priesthood, but even — alone among his more than two , 
hundred and fifty predecessors — the silver wedding of his popedom 
(thus falsifying the tradition 6 non videhit annos Petri'), resolved to 
convoke a new oecumenical Council, which was to proclaim his own in- 
fallibility in all matters of faith and discipline, and thus to put the 
top-stone to the pyramid of the Roman hierarchy. 

He first intimated his intention, June 26, 1867, in an Allocution to 
five hundred Bishops who were assembled at the eighteenth centen- 
ary of the martyrdom of St. Peter in Rome. The Bishops, in a most 
humble and obsequious response, July 1, 1867, approved of his he- 
roic courage, to employ, in his old age, an extreme measure for an 
extreme danger, and predicted a new splendor of the Church, and a new 
triumph of the kingdom of God. 1 Whereupon the Pope announced to 
them that he would convene the Council under the special auspices of 
the immaculate Virgin, who had crushed the serpent's head and was 
mighty to destroy alone all the heresies of the world. 2 

1 ' Summo igitur gaudio, f said the five hundred Bishops, l repletus est animus noster, dum 
sacrato ore Tuo intelleximus, tot inter prcesentis temporis discrimina eo Te esse consilio, ut 
"inaximum," prout aiebat inclitus Tuus prcedecessor Paulus III. , " in maxi.nis rei christi- 
ance periculis remedium," Concilium cecumenicum convoces. Annuat Deus huic Tuo proposito, 
cuius ipse Tibi mentem inspiravit ; kabeantque tandem cevi nostri homines, qui injirmi in fide, 
semper discentes et nunquam ad veritatis agnitionem pervenientes omni vento doctrince circuni- 
feruntur, in sacrosancta hac Synodo novam, prozsentissimamque occasionem accedendi ad sanc- 
tam Ecclesiam columnam ac firmamentum veritatis, cognoscendi salutiferam fidem, perniciosos 
reiiciendi errores ; ac fiat, Deo propitio, et conciliatrice Deipara Immacidata, liozc Synodus 
grande opus unitatis, sanctificationis et pacts, unde novus in Ecclesiam splendor redundet, novus 
regni Dei triumphus consequatur. Et hoc ipso Tuos providentioz opere denuo exibeatur mundo 
immensa beneficia, per Pontificatumromanum humanoz societati asserta. Pateat cunctis, Eccle- 
siam eo quod super solidissima Petra fundetur, tantum valere, ut errores depellat, mores corri- 
gat, barbariem compescat, civilisque humanitatis mater dicatur et sit. Pateat mundo, quod 
divinoz auctoritatis et debitor eidem obediential manifestissimo specimine, in divina Pontifica- 
tus institutione dato, ea omnia stabilita et sacrata sint, quoz societatum fundamenta ac diutur- 
nitatem so/irfe^.' 

2 ' Quod sane votum apertius etiam se prodit in eo communi Concilii cecumenici desiderio, 
quod omnes non modo perutile, sed et necessarium arbitramini. Superbia enim humane, vete- 
rem ansum instauratura, jamdiu per commenticium progression civitatem et turrem extruere 
nititur, cujus culmen pertingat ad cozlum, unde demum Deus ipse detrahi possit. At is de- 
scendisse videtur inspecturus opus, et cedificantium linguas iia confusurus, ut non audiat unus- 



56 



HISTORY OP THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



The call was issued by an Encyclical, commencing JEterni Patrls 
Unigenitus Films, in the twenty-third year of his Pontificate, on the 
feast of St. Peter and Paul, June 29, 1868. It created at once a uni- 
versal commotion in the Christian world, and called forth a multitude 
of books and pamphlets even before the Council convened. The high- 
est expectations were suspended by the Pope and his sympathizers on 
the coming event. What the Council of Trent had effected against 
the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Council of the 
Vatican was to accomplish against the more radical and dangerous foes 
of modern liberalism and rationalism, which threatened to undermine 
Romanism itself in its own strongholds. It was to crush the power of 
infidelity, and to settle all that belongs to the doctrine, worship, and 
discipline of the Church, and the eternal salvation of souls. 1 It was 
even hoped that the Council might become a general feast of recon- 
ciliation of divided Christendom; and hence the Greek schismatics, 



quisque vocem proximi sui : id enim animo obj c ciunt Ecclesioz vexationes, miseranda civilis con- 
sortii conditio, perturbatio rerum omnium, in qua versamur. Cui sane gravissimce caJamitati sol<x 
certe objici potest divina Ecclesice virtus, quce tunc vxaxime se prodit, cum Episcopi a Sum- 
mo Pontifice convocati, eo prccside, conveniunt in nomine Domini de Ecclesice rebus acturi. 
Et gaudemus omnino, prcevertisse vos hac in re propositum jamdiu a nobis conceptum, com- 
mendandi sacrum hum coztum ejus patrocinio, cujus pedi a rerum exordio serpentis caput sub- 
jectumfidt, quceque deinde universas hcereses sola interemit. Satisf acturi propter ea communi 
desiderio jam nunc nunciamus, futurum quandocnnque Concilium sub auspiciis Deiparce Virgi- 
nis ah omni labe immunis esse constituendum, et eo aperiendum die, quo insignis hujus privilegii 
ipsi collati memoria recolitur. Faxit Deus,faxit Immaculata Virgo, ut amplissimos e saluber- 
rimo isto Concilio fructus per cip ere valeamus.'' "While the Pope complains of the pride of the 
age in attempting to build another tower of Babel, it did not occur to him that the assump- 
tion of infallibility, i. e., a predicate of the Almighty by a mortal man, is the consummation 
of spiritual pride. 

1 After describing, in the stereotyped phrases of the Eoman Court, the great solicitude of 
the successors of Peter for pure doctrine and good government, and the terrible tempests and 
calamities by which the Catholic Church and the very foundations of society are shaken in 
the present age, the Pope's Encyclical comprehensively but vaguely, and with a prudent re- 
serve concerning the desired dogma of Infallibility, defines the objects of the Council in these 
words : 1 In ozcumenico hoc Concilio ea omnia accuratissime examine sunt perpendenda ac sta- 
tuenda, quoz hisce prcesertim asperrimis temporibus majorem Dei gloriam, etjidei iniegritatem, 
divinique cultus decorem, sempiternamque hominum sdlutem, et utriusque Cleri disciplinam 
ejusque salutarem solidamque cidturam, atque ecclesiasticarum legum observantiam, morv.mque 
emendationem, et christianam juventutis institutionem, et communem omnium pacem et concor- 
diam in primis respiciunt. Atque etiam intentissimo studio curandum est, tit, Deo bene ju- 
vante, omnia ab Ecclesia et civili societate amoveantur mala, ut miseri errantes ad rectum 
veritatis, justitioz salutisque tramitem reducantur,ut vitiis erroribusque eliminatis, augusta nos- 
tra religio ejusque salutifera docirina ubique terrarum reviviscat, et quotidie magis propagetur 
et dominetur, atque ita pietas, honestas, probitas, justitia, caritas omnesque Christiance vir- 
tutes cum maxima humance societatis utilitate vigeant et efflorescaniS 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



57 



and the Protestant heretics and other non-Catholics, were invited by 
two special letters of the Pope (Sept. 8, and Sept. 13, 1868) to return 
on this auspicious occasion to i the only sheepfold of Christ,' for the 
salvation of their souls. 1 

But the Eastern Patriarchs spurned the invitation, as an insult to . 
their time-honored rights and traditions, from which they could not 
depart. 2 The Protestant communions either ignored or respectfully 
declined it. 3 

Thus the Vatican Council, like that of Trent, turned out to be sim- 
ply a general Eoman Council, and apparently put the prospect of a 
reunion of Christendom farther off than ever before. 

While these sanguine expectations of Pius IX. were doomed to dis- 
appointment, the chief object of the Council was attained in spite of 
the strong opposition of the minority of liberal Catholics. This object, 
which for reasons of propriety is omitted in the bull of convocation and 
other preliminary acts, but clearly stated by the organs of the Ultra- 
montane or Jesuitical party, was nothing less than the proclamation of 

1 ' Omnes Christianos etiam atque etiam hortamur et ohsecramus, tit ad unicum Christi ovile 
redire festinent.' And at the end again, ' uhum ovile et unus pastor ;' according to the false and 
mischievous translation of John x. 16 in the Vulgate (followed by the authorized English 
Version), instead of 'one flock' (/ila i:Qinvr\, not av\r]). There may be many folds, and yet 
one flock under one Shepherd, as there are 'many mansions' in heaven (John xiv. 2). 

2 The Patriarch of Constantinople declined even to receive the Papal letter from the Papal 
messenger, for the reasons that it had already been published in the Giornale di Roma; that 
it contained principles contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, the doctrines of the oecumenical 
Councils, and the holy Fathers ; that there was no supreme Bishop in the Church except 
Christ; and that the Bishop of Old Eome had no right to convoke an oecumenical Council 
without first consulting the Eastern Patriarchs. The other Oriental Bishops either declined 
or returned the Papal letter of invitation. See the documents in Eriedberg, 1. c. pp. 233-253 ; 
in OfficieUe Actenstiicke, etc., pp. 127-135 ; and in the Chronique concernant le Prochain Con- 
cile, Vol. I. pp. 3 sqq., 103 sqq. 

3 The Evangelical Oberkirchenrath of Berlin, the Kirchentag of Stuttgart, 1869, the Paris 
Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, 'The Venerable Company cf Pastors of Geneva,' the 
Professors of the University of Groningen, the Hungarian Lutherans assembled at Pesth, and 
the Presbyterians of the United States, took notice of the Papal invitation, all declining it, and 
reaffirming the principles of the Protestant Preformation. The Presbyterian Dr. Cumming, 
of London, seemed willing to accept the invitation if the Pope would allow a discussion of the 
reasons of the separation from Eome, but was informed by the Pope, through Archbishop 
Manning, in two letters (Sept. 4, and Oct. 30, 1869), that such discussion of questions long 
settled would be entirely inconsistent with the infallibility of the Church and the supremacy 
of the Holy See. See the documents in Eriedberg, pp. 235-257 ; comp. pp. 16, 17, and Offic. 
Actenstiicke, pp. 158-176. The CJrronique concernant le Prochain Concile, p. 169, criticises 
at length the American Presbyterian letter signed by Jacobus and Eowler (Moderators of the 
General Assembly), and sees in its reasons for declining a proof of 'heretical obstinacy and 
ignorance. ' 



58 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



the personal Infallibility of the Pope, as a binding article of the Ro- 
man Catholic faith for all time to come. 1 Herein lies the whole im- 
portance of the Council; all the rest dwindles into insignificance, and 
could never have justified its convocation. 

After extensive and careful preparations, the first (and perhaps the 
last) Yatican Council was solemnly opened amid the sound of innu- 
merable bells and the cannon of St. Angelo, but under frowning skies 
and a pouring rain, on the festival of the Immaculate Conception of the 
Virgin Mary, Dec. 8, 1869, in the Basilica of the Vatican. 2 It reached 
its height at the fourth public session, July 18, 1870, when the decree 
of Papal Infallibility was proclaimed. After this it dragged on a sickly 
existence till October 20, 1870, when it was adjourned till Xov. 11, 
1870, but indefinitely postponed on account of the extraordinary change 
in the political situation of Europe. For on the second of September 
the French Empire, which had been the main support of the temporal 
power of the Pope, collapsed with the surrender of Napoleon III., at 
the old Huguenot stronghold of Sedan, to the Protestant King William 
of Prussia, and on the twentieth of September the Italian troops, in the 

1 So the Civilta cattolica (a monthly Review established 1 S50, at Rome, the principal organ 
of the Jesuits, and the Moniteur of the Papal Court) defined the programme, Feb. 6, 1869 ; add- 
ing to it also the adoption of the Syllabus of 1861, and, perhaps, the proclamation of the as- 
sumption of the Virgin Mary to heaven. The last is reserved for the future. The Archbishop 
of Westminster (Manning) and the Archbishop of Mechlin (Dechamps) predicted, in pastoral 
letters of 1867 and 1869, the proclamation of the Papal Infallibility as a certain event. To 
avert this danger, the Bishop of Orleans (Dupanloup), Pere Gratry of the Oratory, Pere 
Hyacinthe, Bishop Maret (Dean of the Theological Faculty of Paris), Montalembert, John 
Henry Newman, the German Catholic laity (in the Coblenz Address), in part the German 
Bishops assembled at Fulda, and especially the learned authors of the Janus, lifted their 
voice, though in vain. See the literature on the subject in Friedberg, pp. 17-21. 

2 Hence the name. The right cross-nave of St. Peter's Church, which itself is a large 
church, was separated by a painted board wall, and fitted up as the council-hall. See a 
draught of it in Friedberg, p. 98. The hall was very unsuitable for hearing, and had to be 
repeatedly altered. The Pope, it is said (Hase, 1. c. p. 26), did not care that all the orators 
should be understood. The Vatican Palace, where the Pope now resides, adjoins the Church 
of St. Peter. Councils were held there before, but only of a local character. Formerly the Ro- 
man oecumenical Councils were held in the Lateran Palace, the ancient residence of the 
Popes, which is connected with the Church of St. John in the Lateran or Church of the 
Saviour (' omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput'). There are five Lateran Coun- 
cils : the first was held, 1123, under Calixtus II. ; the second, 1139, under Innocent II. ; the 
third, 1179, under Alexander III. ; the fourth and largest, 1215, under Innocent III. ; the 
fifth, 1512-1517, under Leo X., on the eve of the Reformation. The basilica of the Late- 
ran contains the head, the basilica of St. Peter the body, of St. Peter. The Pope expressed 
the hope that a special inspiration would proceed from the near grave of the prince of the Apos- 
tles upon the Fathers of the Council. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 59 

name of King Victor Emanuel, took possession of Rome, as the future 
capital of united Italy. Whether the Council will ever be convened 
again to complete its vast labors, like the twice interrupted Council of 
Trent, remains to be seen. But, in proclaiming the personal Infallibil- 
ity of the Pope, it made all future oecumenical Councils unnecessary 
for the definition of dogmas and the regulation of discipline, so that 
hereafter they will be expensive luxuries and empty ritualistic shows. 
The acts of the Vatican Council, as far as they go, are irrevocable. 

The attendance was larger than that of any of its eighteen predeces- 
sors, 1 and presented an imposing array of hierarchical dignity and 
power such as the world never saw before, and as the Eternal City itself 
is not likely ever to see again. What a contrast this to the first Coun- 
cil of the apostles, elders, and brethren in an upper chamber in Jerusa- 
lem ! The whole number of prelates of the Eoman Catholic Church, 
who are entitled to a seat in an oecumenical Council, is one thousand 
and thirty-seven. 2 Of these there were present at the opening of the 
Council 719, viz., 49 Cardinals, 9 Patriarchs, 4 Primates, 121 Arch- 
bishops, 479 Bishops, 57 Abbots and Generals of monastic orders. 3 
This number afterwards increased to 764, viz., 49 Cardinals, 10 Pa- 
triarchs, 4 Primates, 105 diocesan Archbishops, 22 Archbishops in parti- 
bus infidelium, 424 diocesan Bishops, 98 Bishops in partibus, and 52 
Abbots, and Generals of monastic orders. 4 Distributed according to con- 

1 As the oecumenical character of two or three Councils is disputed, the Vatican Council is 
variously reckoned as the 19th or 20th or 21st oecumenical Council; by strict Eomanists (as 
Manning) as the 19th. Compare note on p. 91. 

2 See a full list, with all the titles, in the Lexicon geographicum added to the second part 
of the Acta et Decreta sacrosancti et cecum. Cone. Vatican! , Friburgi, 1871. The Prelates 
' quibus aut jus aut privilegium fuit sedendi in ozcumenica synodo Vaticana,' are arranged as 
follows : 

(1.) Eminentissimi et reverendissimi Domini S.E. Eom. Caedixales : (a) ordinis Episco- 
porum, (If) ordinis Presbyterorum, (c) ordinis diaconorum — 51. 
(2.) Reverendissimi Domini Pateiaecele — 11. 
(3.) Reverendissimi DD. Peimates — 10. 
(1.) Reverendissimi DD. Aechiepiscopi — 166. 
(5.) Reverendissimi DD. Episcopi — 710. 
(6.) Abbates nullius dioceseos — 6. 
(7.) Abbates Genebales ordinum monasticorum — 23. 

(8.) Gexeeales et Vicaeii Gexebales congregationum clericorum regularium, ordinum 
monasticorum, ordinum mendicantium — 29. In all, 1037. 

3 See the list of names in Eriedberg, pp. 376-391. 

4 See the official Catahgo alfabetico dei Padri presenti al Concilio ecumenico Vaticano, 
Roma, 1870. 



60 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



tinents, 541 of these belonged to Europe, 83 to Asia, 14 to Africa, 113 to 
America, 13 to Oceanica. At the proclamation of the decree of Papal 
Infallibility, July 18, 1870, the number was reduced to 535, and after- 
wards it dwindled down to 200 or 180.. 

Among the many nations represented, 1 the Italians had a vast ma- 
jority of 276, of whom 143 belonged to the former Papal States alone. 
France, with a much larger Catholic population, had only 84, Austria 
and Hungary 48, Spain 41, Great Britain 35, Germany 19, the United 
States 48, Mexico 10, Switzerland 8, Belgium 6, Holland 4, Portugal 
2, Eussia 1. The disproportion between the representatives of the dif- 
ferent nations and the number of their constituents was overwhelm- 
ingly in favor of the Papal influence. More than one-half of the 
Fathers were entertained during the Council at the expense of the Pope. 

The Komans themselves were remarkably indifferent to the Council, 
though keenly alive to the financial gain which the dogma of the In- 
fallibility of their sovereign would bring to the Eternal City and the 
impoverished Papal treasury. 2 It is well known how soon after the 
Council they voted almost in a body against the temporal power of the 
Pope, and for their new master. 

The strictest secresy was enjoined upon the members of the Council. 3 
The stenographic reports of the proceedings were locked up in the 
archives. The world was only to know the final results as proclaimed 
in the public sessions, until it should please the Roman court to issue 
an official history. But the freedom of the press in the nineteenth 
century, the elements of discord in the Council itself, the enterprise or 
indiscretion of members and friends of both parties, frustrated the 
precautions. The principal facts, documents, speeches, plans, and in- 
trigues leaked out in the official schemata, the controversial pamphlets 
of Prelates, and the private reports and letters of outside observers 
who were in intimate and constant intercourse with their friends in 
the Council. 4 



1 Manning says, ' some thirty nations' — probably an exaggeration. 

2 Quirinus, pp. 480, 481 (English translation). 

3 They had to promise and swear to observe ' inviolabilem secreti JiJem'' with regard to the 
discussions, the opinions, and all matters pertaining to the Council. See the form of the oath 
in Friedberg, p. 96. In ancient Councils the people are often mentioned as being present 
during the deliberations, and manifesting their feelings of approval and disapproval. 

* Among the irresponsible but well-informed reporters and correspondents must be men- 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



61 



The subject-matter for deliberation was divided into four parts : on 
Faith, Discipline, Eeligious Orders, and on Eites, including Missions. 
Each part was assigned to a special Commission (Congregatio or JDe- 
jputatio), consisting of 24 Prelates elected by ballot for the whole pe- 
riod of the Council, with a presiding Cardinal appointed by the Pope. 
These Commissions prepared the decrees on the basis of schemata pre- 
viously drawn up by learned divines and canonists, and confidentially 
submitted to the Bishops in print. 1 The decrees were then discussed, 
revised, and adopted in secret sessions by the General Congregation 
(Congregatibnes generates), including all the Fathers, with five pre- 
siding Cardinals appointed by the Pope. The General Congregation 
held eighty-nine sessions in all. Finally, the decrees thus matured were 
voted upon by simple yeas or nays {Placet or Non Placet), and sol- 
emnly promulgated in public sessions in the presence and by the au- 
thority of the Pope. A conditional assent (Placet juxta modum) was 
allowed in the secret, but not in the public sessions. 

There were only four such public sessions held during the ten months 
of the Council, viz., the opening session (lasting nearly seven hours), 
Dec. 8,1869, which was a- mere formality, but of a ritualistic splendor 
and magnificence such as can be gotten up nowhere on earth but in 
St. Peter's Cathedral in Eome; the second session, Jan. 6,1870, when 
the Fathers simply professed each one before the Pope the Mcene 
Creed and the Profession of the Tridentine Faith ; the third session, 
April 24, 1870, when the dogmatic constitution on the Catholic faith 
was unanimously adopted ; and the fourth session, July 18, 1870, when 
the first dogmatic constitution on the Church of Christ and the In- 
fallibility of the Pope was adopted with two dissenting votes. 

The management of the Council was entirely in the hands of the 
Pope and his dependent Cardinals and Jesuitical advisers. He origi- 



tioned especially the writers in the Civilta cattolica, and the Paris Univers, on the part of 
the Infallibilists ; and the pseudonymous Quirinus, Prof. Friedrich, and the anonymous 
French authors of Ce qui se passe au Concile, and of La derniere heure du Concile, on the 
part of the anti-Infallibilists. 

1 There were in all forty-five schemata, divided into four classes : (1) circa fidem, (2) circa 
disciplinam ecclesice, (3) circa ordines regulares, (4) circa res ritus orientalis et apostolicas 
missiones. See a list in Priedberg, pp. 432-434. Only a part of the schemata were submit- 
ted, and only the first two schemata de fide were acted upon. Friedrich, in the Second Part 
of his Documenta, gives the schemata, as far as they were distributed among the Bishops, to- 
gether with the revisions and criticisms of the Bishops. 



02 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



nated the topics which were to be acted on ;. he selected the prepara- 
tory committees of theologians (mostly of the Ultramontane school) 
who, during the winter of 1868-69, drew up the schemata ; he ap- 
pointed the presiding officers of the four Deputations, and of the Gen- 
eral Congregation; and he proclaimed the decrees in his own name, 
' with the approval of the Council.' 1 He provided, by the bull * Cum 
Homanis Pontificibus] of Dec. 4, 1869, for the immediate suspension 
and adjournment of the Council in case of his death. He even person- 
ally interfered during the proceedings in favor of his new dogma by 
praising Infallibilists, and by ignoring or rebuking anti-Infallibilists. 2 
The discussion could be virtually arrested by the presiding Cardinals 
at the request of only ten members ; we say virtually, for although it 
required a vote of the Council, a majority was always sure. The revised 
order of business, issued Feb. 22,1870, departed even from the old rule 
requiring absolute or at least moral unanimity in definitions of faith 
(according to the celebrated canon quod se??i^e?% quod ubique, quod ah 
omnibus creditum est), and substituted for it a mere numerical major- 
ity, in order to secure the triumph of the Infallibility decree in spite of 
a powerful minority. Nothing could be printed in Rome against In- 
fallibility, while the organs of Infallibility had full freedom to print 

1 Under the title : Pius episcopus, servus servorum Dei, sacro opprobante Concilio, ad per- 
petuam rei memoriam. The order prescribed for voting was this : The Pope, through the Sec- 
retary, asked the members of the Council first in general : Recerendissimi Patres, placentne 
v obis Beer eta et Canones qui in hac Constitutione continentur ? Then each one was called by 
name, and must vote either placet or non placet. When the votes were collected and brought 
to the Pope, he announced the result by this formula : Decreta et Canones qui in Constitu- 
tione modo lecta continentur, placuerunt omnibus Patribus, nemine dissentiente [if there were 
dissenting votes the Pope stated their number] ; Nosque, sacro approbante Concilio, ilia 
[sc. decretci] et illos [canones'], ita ut lecta sunt, definimus, et Apostolica Auctoritate confir- 
mamus. See the Monitum in the Giornale di Roma, April 18, 1870; Friedljerg, pp. 462-46-1. 

2 See the laudatory letters of Pius to several advocates of Infallibility, in Priedberg, pp. 487- 
495 ; comp. pp. 108-111. To Archbishop Dechamps, of Mechlin, he wrote that, in his tract 
on Papal Infallibility, he had proved the harmony of the Catholic faith with human reason 
so convincingly as to force even the Rationalists to see the absurdity of the opposite views. 
He applauded the indefatigable and abusive editor of the Paris Univers, Veuillot, who had col- 
lected 100,000 francs for the Vicar of Christ (May 30, 1870). On the other hand, he is re- 
ported to have rebuked in conversation Cardinal Schwarzenberg by the remark: 'I, John 
Maria Mastai, believe in the infallibility of the Pope. As Pope I have nothing to ask from 
the Council. The Holy Ghost will enlighten it,' He even attacked the memory of the elo- 
quent French champion Of Catholic interests, the Count Montalembert, who died during the 
Council (March 13, 1870), by saying, in the presence of three hundred persons : 4 He had a 
great enemy, pride. He was a liberal Catholic, i. e., a half Catholic' Ce qui se passe au 
Concile, 154 sqq. 



HISTOKY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 03 

and publish what they pleased. 1 Such prominence of the Pope is char- 
acteristic of a Council convoked for the very purpose of proclaiming 
his personal infallibility, but is without precedent in history (except in 
some mediaeval Councils) ; even the Council of Trent maintained its 
own dignity and comparative independence by declaring its decrees in 
its own name. 2 

This want of freedom of the Council — not to speak of the strict 
police surveillance over the members — was severely censured by lib- 
eral Catholics. More than one hundred Prelates of all nations signed 
a strong protest (dated Kome, March 1, 1870) against the order of 
business, especially against the mere majority vote, and expressed the 
fear that in the end the authority of this Council might be impaired as 
wanting in truth and liberty — a calamity so direful in these uneasy 
times, that a greater could not be imagined. But this protest, like 
all the acts of the minority, was ignored. 

The proceedings were, of course, in the official language of the Po- 
man Church, which all Prelates could understand and speak, but very 
few with sufficient ease to do justice to themselves and their subjects. 
The acoustic defects of the Council-hall and the difference of pronun- 
ciation proved a great inconvenience, and the Continentals complained 

1 Several minority documents, as Kenrick's speech against Infallibility, and the Latin edi- 
tion of Hefele's tract on Honorius, were printed in Naples ; the German in Tubingen. But 
the Civilta cattolica, the irresponsible organ of the Jesuits and tbe Pope, was provided with a 
special building and income, and every facility for obtaining information. See Acton, Quiri- 
nus, and Frommann (1. c. p. 13). 

2 ' Sacrosancta Tridentina Synodus, in Spiritu Sancto legitime congregata . . . declarat.' 
See the order of the Council of Trent as republished in Friedrich's Documenta, I. pp. 265 sqq. 

3 ''Id autem, quod spectat ad nw.nerum suffragiorum requisitum, ut qucestiones dogmaticce 
solvantur, in quo quidem rei summa est totiusque Concilii cardo vertitur, ita grave est, ut nisi 
admitteretur, quod r ever enter et enixe posiulamus, conscientia nostra intolerabili ponder ~e preme- 
retur : timer emus, ne Concilii cecumenici character in dubium vocari posset ; ne ansa hostibus 
prozberetur Sanctam Sedem et Concilium impetendi, sicque demum apud populum Christianum 
hvjus Concilii auctoritas labefactaretur, quasi veritate et libertate caruerit : quod his turba- 
tissimis temporibus tanta esset calamitas, ut pejor excogitari nulla possit.' See the remarkable 
protest in Friedberg, pp. 417-422. Also Dollinger's critique of the order of business, ib. 422- 
432 ; Archbishop Kenrick's famous concio habenda at non habita, published in Naples, 1870 
(and republished in Friedrich's Docum.); the work La liberte du Concile et Vinfaillibilite', 
which was either written or inspired by Archbishop Darboy, of Paris (in Friedrich's Docum. 
I. pp. 129 sqq.), and the same Prelate's speech in the General Congregation, May 20, 1870 
{ibidem, II. pp. 415 sqq.). Archbishop Manning, sublimely ignoring all these facts and docu- 
ments, and referring us to the inaccessible Archives of the Vatican, assures us (Petri Privil. 
III. 32) that the Council was as free as the Congress of the United States, and that the won- 
der is, not that the opposition failed of its object, but that the Council so long held its peace. 



64 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



that they could not understand the English Latin. The Council had 
a full share of ignorance and superstition/ and was disgraced by in- 
trigues and occasional outbursts of intolerance and passion such as are, 
alas! not unusual in deliberative assemblies even of the Christian 
Church. 2 But it embraced also much learning and eloquence, espe- 
cially on the part of the French and German Episcopate. Upon the 
whole, it compares favorably, as to intellectual ability, moral character, 
and far-reaching effect, with preceding Bom an Councils, and must be 

1 Some amusing examples are reported by the well-informed Quirinus. Bishop Pie, of 
Poitiers, supported the Papal Infallibility in a session of the General Congregation (May 
13) by an entirely original argument derived from the legend that Peter was crucified down- 
ward ; for as his head bore the whole weight of the body, so the Pope, as the head, bears 
the whole Church ; but he is infallible who bears, not he who is borne ! The Italians and Span- 
iards applauded enthusiastically. Unfortunately for the argument, the head of Peter did not 
bear his body, but the cross bore both ; consequently the cross must be infallible. A Sicilian 
Prelate said the Sicilians first doubted the infallibility of Peter when he visited the island, 
and sent a special deputation of inquiry to the Virgin Mary, but were assured by her that she 
remembered well having been present when Christ conferred this prerogative on Peter ; and 
this satisfied them completely. Quirinus adds : ' The opposition Bishops see a proof of the 
insolent contempt of the majority in thus putting up such men as Pie and this Sicilian to speak 
against them. ' Letter XLVI. p. 534. 

3 The following characteristic episode (ignored, of course, in Manning's eulogy) is well au- 
thenticated by the concurrent and yet independent reports of Lord Acton (V. Brit. Rev.% 
Quirinus (Letter XXXIL.), Friedrich (Tagebuch, pp. 271, 272), and the author of Ce qui se 
passe au Concile (p. 69); comp. Friedberg (pp. 304-106). When Bishop Strossmayer, the 
boldest member of the opposition and an eloquent Latinist, in a session of the General Con- 
gregation (March 22), spoke favorably of the great Leibnitz, and paid Protestants the poor 
compliment of honesty (quoting from St. Augustine : 'Errant, sed bona fide errant"), he was 
interrupted by the bell of the President (De Angelis) and his rebuke, ' This is no place for 
praising Protestants' ( l hicce non est locus laudandi Protestantes , )l Very true, for the Coun- 
cil-hall was only a hundred paces from the Palace of the Inquisition. When, resuming, the 
speaker ventured to attack the principle of deciding questions of faith by mere majorities, he 
was more loudly interrupted from all sides by confused exclamations : ' Shame ! shame ! 
down with the heretic!' (' Descendat ab ambone! Descendat! Hcereticus! Hoereticus ! Dam- 
namus eum ! Damnamus V) 'Several Bishops sprang from their seats, rushed to the tribune, 
and shook their fists in the speaker's face' (Quirinus, p. 387). When one Bishop (Place, of 
Marseilles) interposed, ' Ego non damno /' the cry was raised with increased fury: ' Omnes, 
omnes ilium damnamus! damnamus /' Strossmayer was forced by the uproar and the con- 
tinued ringing of the bell to quit the tribune, but did so with a triple ' Protestor.' The noise 
was so great that it could be heard in the interior of St. Peter's. Some thought the Gari- 
baldkns had broken in ; others that Infallibility had been proclaimed, and shouted, accord- 
ing to their opposite views, either 'Long live the infallible Pope!' or 'Long live the Pope, 
but not the infallible one' (comp. Quirinus, and Ce qui se passe, p. 69). Quirinus says that 
the scene, ' for dramatic force and theological significance, exceeded almost any thing in the 
past history of Councils' (p. 386), and that a Bishop of the United States said afterwards, 'not 
without a sense of patriotic pride, that he knew now of one assembly still rougher than the 
Congress of his own country' (p. 388). Similar scenes of violence occurred in the oecumen- 
ical Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, but Christian civilization ought to have made some 
progress since the fifth century. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



.65 



regarded as the greatest event in the history of the Papacy since the 
Council of Trent. 

The chief importance of the Council of the Vatican lies in its decree 
on Papal supremacy and Infallibility. It settled the internal dissen- 
sions between Ultramontanism and Gallicanism, which struck at the 
root of the fundamental principle of authority ; it destroyed the inde- 
pendence of the Episcopate, and made it a tool of the Primacy; it 
crushed liberal Catholicism ; it completed the system of Papal abso- 
lutism ; it raised the hitherto disputed opinion of Papal Infallibility to 
the dignity of a binding article of faith, which no Catholic can deny 
without loss of salvation. The Pope may now say not only, ' I am the 
tradition' (La tradizione sorf to), but also, £ I am the Church' {JOeglise 
dest moi) ! 

But this very triumph of absolutism marks also a new departure. It 
gave rise to a secession headed by the ablest divines of the Roman 
Church. It put the Papacy into direct antagonism to the liberal tend- 
encies of the age. It excited the hostilitv of civil government in all 
those countries where Church and State are united on the basis of a 
concordat with the Boman See. Iso State with any degree of self- 
respect can treat with a sovereign who claims infallibility, and there- 
fore unconditional submission in matters of moral duty as well as of 
faith. In reaching the summit of its power, the Papacy has hastened 
its downfall. 

For Protestants and Greeks the Vatican Council is no more oecu- 
menical than that of Trent, and has only intensified the antagonism. 
Its cecumenieity was also denied by such eminent Roman Catholic 
scholars as Dollinger, von Schulte, and Peinkens, before their ex- 
communication as £ Old Catholics,' because it lacked the two fun- 
damental conditions of liberty of discussion and moral unanimity 
of suffrage. 1 But the subsequent submission of all the Bishops who 
had voted against Papal Infallibility, supplies the defect as far as the 

1 See the Old Catholic protests of the Professors in Munich and Breslau in Friedberg. 
pp. 152-1 54-, and the literature on the reception of the Council, ib. 53-56 ; also the discussion 
of Frommann, pp. 325 sqq. 451 sqq. Dollinger, in his famous censure of the new order of the 
Council, takes the ground that the cecumenici'ty of a Council depends upon an authority out- 
side of itself, viz., the public opinion as expressed in the subsequent approval of the whole 
Church ; and Fater Hotzl laid down the principle that no Council is oecumenical which is not. 
approved. and adopted as such by the Church. Admitting this, the condition is now fulfilled 
in the case of the Vatican Council to the whole extent of the Roman Fpiscopate, which con- 
stitutes the ecclesia docens, the laity having nothing to do but to submit. 

E 



{ )Q HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

Roman Church is concerned. There was nothing left to them but 
either to submit or to be expelled. They chose the former, and thus 
destroyed the legal and moral force of their protest, although not the 
power of truth and the nature of the facts on which it was based. 
Henceforward Romanism must stand or fall with the Vatican Council. 
But (as we have before intimated) Romanism is not to be confounded 
with Catholicism any more than the Jewish hierarchy which crucified 
our Saviour, is identical with the people of Israel, from which sprang 
the Apostles and early converts of Christianity. The destruction of 
the infallible and irreformable Papacy may be the emancipation of 
Catholicism, and lead it from its prison-house to the light of a new 
Reformation. 

The Vatican Decrees. The Constitution on the Catholic Faith. 

Three schemes on matters of faith were prepared for the Vatican 
Council — one against Rationalism, one on the Church of Christ, and 
one on Christian Matrimony. The fin two were revised and adopted; 
the third was indefinitely postponed. _ There was also much discussion 
on the preparation of a small popular Catechism adapted to the present 
doctrinal status of the Roman Church, and intended to supersede the 
numerous popular Catechisms now in use ; but the draft, which assigned 
the whole teaching power of the Church to the Pope, to the exclusion 
of the Episcopate, encountered such opposition (57 Won Placet, 24 
conditional Placet) in the provisional vote of May 4, that it was laid 
on the table and never called up again. 1 

I. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith (constitittio 

DOGMATIC A DE FIDE CATHOLICA). 

It was unanimously adopted in the third public session, April 24 
{Dominica in aIMs),lS70. 

The original draft laid before the Council embraced eighteen chap- 
ters — on Pantheism, Rationalism, Scripture and tradition, revelation, 
faith and reason, the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the primitive 
state, original sin, the Christian redemption, the supernatural order of 

1 Cardinal- Archbishop Matthieu of Besan9on,who voted Xon Placet, is reported by Quirinus 
to have said on this occasion: ' On veut jeter Veglise dans fabline, nous y jcterons plulot nos 
cadavres. ' Comp. Frommann, 1. c. p. 1 60. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



07 



grace; but was laid aside. 1 Archbishop Connolly, of Halifax, recom- 
mended that it should be decently buried. 2 

In its present form, the Constitution on the Catholic faith is reduced to 
four chapters, with a proemium and a conclusion. Chap. I. treats of God 
as the Creator ; Chap. II. of revelation ; Chap. III. of faith ; Chap. IY. 
of faith and reason. Then follow 18 canons, in which the errors of 
Pantheism, Naturalism, and Eationalism are condemned in a manner 
substantially the same, though more clearly and fully, than had been 
done in the first two sections of the Syllabus. 

The decree asserts, in the old scholastic terminology, the well-known 
principles of Supernaturalism as held by orthodox Christians in all ages, 
but it completely ignores the freedom and progress of theological and 
philosophical science and learning since the Council of Trent, and it 
forbids (in Chap. II.) all interpretation of the Scriptures which does not 
agree with the Romish traditions, the Latin STulgate, and the fictitious 
' unanimous consent of the Fathers.' Hence a liberal member of the 
Council, in the course of discussion, declared the schema dejide a work 
of supererogation. 6 What boots it/ he said, ' to condemn errors which 
have been long condemned, and tempt no Catholic? The false beliefs 
of mankind are beyond the reach of your decrees. The best defense of 
Catholicism is religious science. Encourage sound learning, and prove 
by deeds as well as words that it is the mission of the Church' to pro- 
mote among the nations liberty, light, and true prosperity.' 3 On the 
other hand, the Univers calls the schema a 6 masterpiece of clearness 
and force ;' the Civiltd cattolica sees in it - a reflex of the wisdom of 
God ;' 4 and Archbishop Manning thinks that its importance ' can not 
be overestimated,' that it is ' the broadest and boldest affirmation of the 
supernatural and spiritual order ever yet made in the face of the world, 
which is now more than ever sunk in sense and heavy with Material- 
ism.' 5 Whatever be the value of the positive principles of the schema, 

1 Friedrich, Docum. II. pp. 3-23. 

2 l Censeo schema cum honor e esse sepeliendum ' (Quirinus, p. 1 22). Rauscher also spoli3 
against the schema, which made much impression, because he had brought its chief anchor, 
the Jesuit Schrader, to the University of Vienna. 

3 Quoted in Latin by Lord Acton in the North British Review, Oct. 1870, p. J 12, and in 
Friedberg, p. 102. ' Acton attributes this speech, not to Strossmayer (as Friedberg says, 1. c. ; 
comp. pp. 28 and 102), but to a 'Swiss prelate,' whom he does not name. 

4 ' Un riverbero deUa sapienza di Dio,' VII. 10, p. 523, quoted by Frommann, 1. c. p. 383. 
F Petri Privilegium, III. pp. 49, 50. 



68 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



its Popish head and tail reduce it to a hrutum fulmen outside of the 
Romish Church, and even the most orthodox Protestants must apply 
to it the warning, Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. 

The preamble, even in its present modified form, derives modern 
Rationalism and infidelity, as a legitimate fruit, from the heresies con- 
demned by the Council of Trent — that is, from the Protestant Refor- 
mation ; in the face of the fact, patent to every scholar, that Protestant 
theology has been in the thickest of the fight with unbelief, and, not- 
withstanding all its excesses, has produced a far richer exegetical and 
apologetic literature than Romanism during the last three hundred 
years. 1 The boldest testimony heard in the Council was directed 
against this preamble by Bishop Strossmayer, from the Turkish frontier 
(March 22, 1870). He characterized the charge against Protestantism 
as neither just nor charitable. Protestants, he said, abhorred the errors 
condemned in the schema -as much as Catholics. The germ of Ration- 
alism e'xisted in the Catholic Church before the Reformation, especially 
in the humanism which was nourished in the very sanctuary by the 
highest dignitaries, 2 and bore its worst fruits in the midst of a Catholic 
nation at the time of Yoltaire and the Encyclopedists. Catholics had 
produced no better refutation of the errors enumerated in the schema 
than such men. as Leibnitz and Ouizot. There were multitudes of 
Protestants in Germany, England, and North America who loved our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and had inherited from the shipwreck of faith posi- 
tive truths and monuments of divine grace. 3 Although this speech 
was greeted with execrations (see page 145), it had at least the effect 
that the objectionable preamble was somewhat modified. 4 

1 The objectionable passage, as finally adopted, reads thus : ' No one is ignorant that the 
heresies proscribed by the Fathers ^of Trent, by which the divine magisterium of the Church 
was rejected, and all matters regarding religion were surrendered to the judgment of each 
individual, gradually became dissolved into many sects, which disagreed and contended with 
one another, until at length not a few lost all faith in Christ. Even the Holy Scriptures, 
which had previously been declared the sole source and judge of Christian doctrine, began to 
be held no longer as divine, but to be ranked among the fictions of mythology. Then there 
arose, and too widely overspread the world, that doctrine of Rationalism which opposes itself 
in every way to the Christian religion as a supernatural institution/ See the different re- 
visions of the schema de fide in Friedrich's Monum. Pt. II. pp. 3, 65, 73. 

2 Allusion to Pope Leo X. 

3 See the principal part of Strossmayer s speech in Latin in Lord Acton's article in the 
North British Review, Oct. 1870, pp. 1 1 5, 1 1 6, and in Friedberg, pp. 104-106. 

4 The words in the first revision (Friedr. Doc.um. II. p. 65), systematum monstra. mythismi, 
rationalismi, indifferentismi nomine designate:, etc., together with some other offensive ex- 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



09 



The supplement of the decree binds all Catholics to observe also 
those constitutions and decrees by which such erroneous opinions as 
are not here specifically enumerated have been proscribed and con- 
demned by the Holy See. This can be so construed as to include 
all the eighty errors of the Syllabus. The minority who in the Gen- 
eral Congregation had voted Non Placet or only a conditional Placet, 
were quieted by the official assurance that the addition involved no 
new dogma, and had a disciplinary rather than a didactic character. 
' Some gave their votes with a heavy heart, conscious of the snare.' 
Strossmayer stayed away. Thus a unanimous vote of 667 or 668 fa- 
thers was secured in the public session, and the Infallibility decree was 
virtually anticipated. The Pope, after proclaiming the dogma, gave 
the Bishops his benediction of peace, and gently intimated what he 
next expected from them. 1 



The Vatican Decrees, continued. The Infallibility Decree. 

II. The Fiest Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ (con- 
stitute DOGMATICA PRIMA EE ECCLESIA ChRISTI). 

It was passed, with two dissenting votes, in the fourth public session, 
July 18, 1870. It treats, in four chapters — (1) on the institution of the 
Apostolic Primacy in the blessed Peter ; (2) on the perpetuity of St. 
Peter's Primacy in the Roman Pontiff; (3) on the power and nature 

pressions, were omitted ; .but, after all, the substance remained. Lord Acton relates that the 
German Jesuit Kleutgen hastily drew up the more moderate form. Comp. Quirinus, Letter 
XXXIII. p. 394 sq. Political influence was also brought to bear indirectly upon the Coun- 
cil, as appeared afterwards from Italian papers. Bismarck directed the German Embas- 
sador at Rome, Count Arnim, to inform Cardinal Antonelli that, unless the charge against 
Protestantism was withdrawn, he would not allow the Prussian Bishops on their return to 
resume their functions in a country whose faith they had insulted. • Friedrich, Tagebuch, pp. 
275, 292 ; Frommann, Geschichte des Vat. Concils, p. 145 ; Hase, Polem. p. 34. The latter 
overestimates the influence of Prussia on the Papal court when he says: 'If France com- 
plains of the Council, Antonelli makes three bows, and all remains as before ; but if Prussia 
comes with her mustache and cavalry boots, Rome understands that the word is quickly fol- 
lowed by the deed, and wisely yields. Strossmayer and von Arnim were in doubt which one 
of them had been most instrumental in saving the Council from an impropriety.' 

1 ' P7c/e£?s, ' he said, ''Fratres carissimi, quam bonum sit et jucundum arnbulare in domo Dei 
cum consensu, ambidare cum pace. Sic ambuletis semper. Et quoniam hac die Dominus Noster 
Jesus Christus dedit pacem Apostolis suis,et ego, Vicarius ejus indignus, nomine suo do vobis 
pacem. Pax ista, prout scitis, expellit timorem. Pax ista, prout sritis, ch.ud.it awes sc7-mo- 
nibus impends. Ah ! ista pax vos comitetur omnibus diebus vitoz vestraz ; sit ista pax vis in 
morte, sit ista pax vobis gaudium sempiternum in cozUs.' 



70 HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

of the Primacy of the Eoman Pontiff ; (4) on the Infallibility of the 
Roman Pontiff. 

The new features are contained in the last two chapters, which teach 
Papal Absolutism and Papal Infallibility. The third chapter vindi- 
cates to the Roman Pontiff a superiority of ordinary episcopal (not 
simply an extraordinary primatial) power over all other Churches, and. 
an immediate jurisdiction, to which all Catholics, both pastors and peo- 
ple, are bound to submit in matters not only of faith and morals, but 
even of discipline and government. 1 He is, therefore, the Bishop of 
Bishops, over every single Bishop, and over all Bishops put together ; 
he is in the fullest sense the Vicar of Christ, and all Bishops are sim- 
ply Yicars of the Pope. The fourth chapter teaches and defines, as a 
divinely revealed dogma, that the Roman Pontiff, when speaking from 
his chair {ex cathedra), i. e., in his official capacity, to the Christian 
world on subjects relating to faith or morals, is infallible, and that such 
definitions are irreformable (i. e., final and irreversible) in and of them- 
selves, and not in consequence of the consent of the Church. 2 

1 After quoting, in a mutilated form, the definition of the Council of Florence, whose 
genuineness is disputed (compare p. 97, note 1), the third chapter goes on: i Docemus et 
declaramus, Ecclesiam Romanam, dispo?iente Domino, suj>er omnes alias ordinarioz potestatis 
obtinere principatum, et hanc Romani Pontijicis jurisdictionis potestate?n, quoz vere episco- 
palis est, immediatam esse, erga quam cujuscunque ritus et dignitatis pastores atque Jideles, 
tarn seorsum singuli quam simid omnes, officio hierarchical subordinations verozque obediential 
ob string untur, non solum in rebus, quoz ad Jidem et mores, sed etiam in lis, quai ad disciplinam 
et regimen Ecclesiai "per totum orbem diffuses pertinent; ita ut,custodita cum Romano Pontijice 
tarn communionis quam ejusdem jidei prqfessionis unitate, Ecclesiai Christi sit unus grex sub 
uno summo pastore. Hcec est catholicoz veritatis doctrina, a qua deviare salva fide atque salute 
nemo potest. . . . Si quis itaque dixerit, Romanam Pontificem habere tantummodo officium 
inspectionis vel directionis, non autem plenam et supremam potestatem jurisdictionis in uni- 
versam Ecclesiam, non solum in rebus, quo3 ad Jidem et mores, sed etiam in iis, quoz ad discipli- 
nam et regimem Ecclesiai per totum orbem diffusoz pertinent ; aut eum habere tantum potiores 
pzrtes, non vero totam plenitudinem hujus supremoz potestatis; aut hanc ejus potestatem non 
esse ordinariam et immediatam sive in. omnes ac singulas ecclesias, sive in omnes et singulos 
pastores et jideles; anathema sit.'' 

2 l Itaque Nos traditioni a fidei Christiance exordio perceptce fideliter inhozrendo, ad Dei 
Salvatoris nostri gloriam, religionis Catholicoz exaltationem et Christianorum populorum salu- 
tem, sacro approbante Concilio, docemus et divinitus revelatum dogma esse declaramus : Eo- 
manum Pontificem, cum ex_ Cathedra loquitur, id est, cum omnium Christianorum 
Pastoris et Doctoris munere fungens pro suprema sua Apostolica auctoritate 
doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab universa ecclesia tenendam definit, per assis- 

tentiam divinam, ipsi in beato Petro PROMISSAM, EA INFALLIBILITATE POLLERE, QUA 
DIVINUS EEDEMPTOR ECCLESIAM SUAM IN DEFINIENDA DOCTRINA DE FIDE TEL MORIBUS 
INSTRUCTAM ESSE VOLUIT ; IDEOQUE EJUSMODI ROMANI PONTIFICIS DEFINITIONES EX SESE, 
NON AUTEM EX CONSENSU ECCLESLE, IRREFORMABILES ESSE. 

i Si quis autem huic Nostroz dejinitioni contradicere, quod Deus avertat, prozsumpserit ; 
anathema sit.'' 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



n 



To appreciate the value and bearing of this decree, we must give a 
brief history of it. 

The Infallibility question was suspended over the Council from the 
very beginning as the question of questions, for good or for evil. The 
original plan of the Infallibilists, to decide it by acclamation, had to be 
abandoned in view of a formidable opposition, which was developed in- 
side and outside of the Council. The majority of the Bishops circulated, 
early in January, a monster petition, signed by 410 names, in favor of 
Infallibility. 1 The Italians and the Spaniards circulated similar peti- 
tions separately. Archbishop Spalding, of Baltimore, formerly an auti- 
Infallibilist, prepared an address offering some compromise to the 
effect that an appeal from the Pope to an oecumenical Council should 
be reproved. 2 But five counter-petitions, signed by very weighty 
names, in all 137, representing various degrees of opposition, but 
agreed as to the inqpjportunity of the definition, were sent in during 
the same month (Jan. 12 to 18) by German and Austrian, Hungarian, 
French, American, Oriental, and Italian Bishops. 3 

The Pope received none of these addresses, but referred them to the 
Deputation on Faith. While in this he showed his impartiality, he 
did not conceal, in a private way, his real opinion, and gave it the 
weight of his personal character and influence. 6 Faith in his personal 
infallibility,' says a well-informed Catholic, £ and belief in a constant 
and special communication with the Holy Ghost, form the basis of 
the character of Pius IX.' 4 In the Council itself, Archbishop Manning, 
the Anglican convert, was the most zealous, devout, and enthusiastic 
Infallibilist ; he urged the definition as the surest means of gaining 
hesitating Anglo-Catholics and Ritualists longing for absolute authority ; 
while his former teacher and friend, Dr. Pusey, feared that the new 

1 Friedberg, pp. 465-470. Comp. Frommann, p. 59 sq. 

2 Friedberg, pp. 470 sqq. ; Frommann, pp. 61-63. 

3 Friedberg, pp. 472-478. The American petition against Infallibility was signed by Par- 
cell, of Cincinnati ; Kenrick, of St. Louis ; McCloskey, of New York ; Connolly, of Halifax ; 
Bayley, of Newark (now Archbishop of Baltimore), and several others. 

4 Ce qui se passe au Concile, p. 130. The writer adds that some of the predecessors of Pius 
have held his doctrines, but none has been so ardently convinced, none has professed them 
' avec ce mysticisme enthousiaste, ce dedain pour les remontrances des savants et des sages, 
cette confiance impassible. Quel que soit le jugement de Vhistoire, personne ne pourra nier que 
cette foiprofonde ne lui ait cree dans le dix-neuvihne siecle une personnalite d'une puissance et 
d'une majeste incomparables, dont Ve'clat grandit encore un pontificat de'ja si remarquable par 
une duree, des vertus et des malheurs vrahnent exceptionnels.' 



72 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



dogma would make the breach between Oxford and Home wider than 
ever. Manning is ' more Catholic than Catholics ' to the manor born, 
as the English settlers in Ireland were more Irish than Irishmen, 1 and 
is altogether worthy to be the successor of Pius IX. in the chair of 
St. Peter. Both these eminent and remarkable persons show how a 
sincere faith in a dogma, which borders on blasphemy, may, by a strange 
delusion or hallucination, be combined with rare purity and amiability 
of character. 

, Besides the all-powerful aid of the Pope, whom no Bishop can dis- 
obey without fatal consequences, the Infallibilists had the great advan- 
tage of perfect unity of sentiment and aim ; while the anti-Inf allibilists 
were divided among themselves, many of them being simply i?iqppor- 
tunists. They professed to agree with the majority in principle or 
practice, and to differ from them only on the subordinate question of 
definability and opportunity. 2 This qualified opposition had no weight 
whatever with the Pope, who was as fully convinced of the opportu- 
nity and necessity of the definition as he was of the dogma itself. 3 
And even the most advanced anti-Inf allibilists, as Kenrick, Hefele, and 
Strossmayer, were too much hampered by Romish traditionalism to plant 
their foot firmly on the Scriptures, which after all must decide all ques- 
tions of faith. 

In the mean time a literary war on Infallibility was carried on in 
the Catholic Church in Germany, France, and England, and added 
to the commotion in Rome. A large number of pamphlets, written 
or inspired by prominent members of the Council, appeared for and 
against Infallibility. Distinguished outsiders, as Dollinger, Gratry, Ily- 
acinthe, Montalembert, and Newman, mixed in the fight, and strength- 

1 So Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, characterized him in his Concio hahenda at non 
habita. Quirinus (Appendix I. p. 832) quotes from a sermon of Manning, preached at Ken- 
sington, 1869, in the Pope's name, the following passage : ' I claim to be the Supreme Judge 
and director of the consciences of men — of the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that 
sits on the throne ; of the household that lives in the shade of privacy, and the Legislature 
that makes laws for kingdoms. I am the sole last Supreme Judge of what is right and wrong.' 

2 Only the address of the German Bishops took openly the ground that it would be difficult 
from internal reasons (viz., the contradiction of history and tradition) to proclaim Infallibility 
as a dogma of revelation. See Friedrich, Tagebuch, p. 1 26 ; and Frommann, Geschichte, p. 62. 

3 On being asked whether he considered the definition of the dogma opportune, Pius IX. 
resolutely answered, 'No! but necessary.' He complained of the opposing Bishops, that, 
living among Protestants, they were infected by their freedom of thought, and had lost the 
true traditional feeling. Hase, p. 180. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



73 



ened the minority. 1 The utterance of Dr. John Henry Newman, the 
intellectual leader of the Anglo-Catholic apostasy, and by far the ablest 
scholar and dialectician among English Romanists, reveals a most curi- 
ous state of mind, oscillating between absolute infallibilism and hope- 
less skepticism, and taking refuge at last in prayer — not to Christ, nor 
to the Holy Ghost, nor to the Apostles, but — to St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, 
and St. Augustine, that they might enlighten the Council at this critical 
juncture, and decide the matter by their intercession. 2 

1 See the literature in the next section, and in Friedberg, pp. 33-44. Comp. Frommann, 
ppr 66 sqq. 

2 In striking contrast with his admiring pupil, Manning, Dr. Newman thus unburdened his 
troubled heart to Bishop Ullathorne, of Birmingham (see his letter published ' by permission' 
in the Standard of April 7, 1870): ' Bome ought to be a name to lighten the heart at all 
times, and a Council's proper office is, when some great heresy or other evil impends, to in- 
spire hope and confidence in the faithful ; but now we have the greatest meeting which ever 
has been, and that at Bome, infusing into us by the accredited organs of Bome and of its 
partisans, such as the Civilta (the Anno ni a), the Univers, and the Tablet, little else than fear 
and dismay. When we are all at rest, and have no doubts, and — at least practically, not to. 
say doctrinally — hold the Holy Father to be infallible, suddenly there is thunder in the clear- 
est sky, and we are told to prepare for something, we know not what, to try our faith, we 
know not how. No impending danger is to be averted, but a great difficulty is to be created. 
Is this the proper work for an oecumenical Council? As to myself personally, please God, 
I do not expect any trial at all ; but I can not help suffering with the many souls who are 
suffering, and I look with anxiety at the prospect of having to defend decisions which may 
not be difficult to my own private judgment, but may be most difficult to maintain logically 
in the face of historical facts. What have we done to be treated as the faithful never were 
treated before ? When has a definition de Jide been a luxury of devotion, and not a stern, 
painful necessity? Why should an aggressive, insolent faction be allowed to "make the 
heart of the just sad, whom the Lord hath not made sorrowful ?" Why can not we be let 
alone when we have pursue'd peace and thought no evil ? I assure you, my lord, some of the 
truest minds are driven one way and another, and do not know where to rest their feet — one 
day determining "to give up all theology as a bad job," and recklessly to believe henceforth 
almost that the Fope is impeccable, at another tempted to "believe all the worst which a 
book like. Janus says;" others doubting about "the capacity possessed by Bishops drawn 
from all corners of the earth to judge what is fitting for European society," and then, again, 
angry with the Holy See for listening to " the flattery of a clique of Jesuits, Bedemptorists, 
and converts." Then, again, think of the store of Pontifical scandals in the history of eighteen 
centuries, which have partly been poured forth, and partly are still to come. What Murphy 
[a Frotestant traveling preacher] inflicted upon us in one way, Mr. Veuillot is indirectly bring- 
ing on us in another. And then, again, the blight which is falling upon the multitude of Angli- 
can Bitualists, etc., who themselves, perhaps — at least their leaders — may never become Cath- 
olics, but who are leavening the various English denominations and parties (far beyond their 
own range) with principles and sentiments tending towards their ultimate absorption into the 
Catholic Church. With these thoughts ever before me, I am continually asking myself wheth- 
er I ought not to make my feelings public ; but all I do is to pray those early doctors of the 
Church, whose intercession would decide the matter (Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, Atha- 
nasius, Chrysostom, and Basil), to avert this great calamity. If it is God's will that the Fope's 
infallibility be defined, then is it God's will to throw back "the times and moments" of that 



74 HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

After preliminary skirmishes, the formal discussion began in earnest 
in the 50th session of the General Congregation, May 13, 1870, and 
lasted to the 86th General Congregation, July 16. About eighty Latin 
speeches 1 were delivered in the general discussion on the schema de 
Homano Pontifice, nearly one. half of them on the part of the oppo- 
sition, which embraced less than one fifth of the Council. When the 
arguments and the patience of the assembly were pretty well exhaust- 
ed, the President, at the petition of a hundred and fifty Bishops, closed 
the general discussion on the third day of June. About forty more 
Bishops, who had entered their names, were thus prevented from speak- 
ing ; but one of them, Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, published his 
strong argument against Infallibility in Naples. 2 Then five special 
discussions commenced on the proemium and the four chapters. ' For 
the fifth or last discussion a hundred and twenty Bishops inscribed 
their names to speak ; fifty of them were heard, until on both sides the 
burden became too heavy to bear; and, -by mutual consent, a useless 
and endless discussion, from mere exhaustion, ceased.' 3 

When the vote was taken on the whole four chapters of the Consti- 
tution of the Church, July 13, 1870, in the 85th secret session of the 
General Congregation (601 members being present), 451 voted Placet, 
88 Non Placet, 62 Placet juxta modum, over 80 (perhaps 91), though 
present in Rome or in the neighborhood, abstained for various reasons 
from voting. 4 Among the negative votes were the Prelates most dis- 

triumph which he has destined for his kingdom, and I shall feel I have but to bow my head 
to his adorable, inscrutable Providence. You have not touched upon the subject yourself, but 
I think you will allow me to express to you feelings which, for the most part, I keep to my- 
self. . . .' See an excellent German translation of this letter in Quirinus (p. 274, Germ, ed.) 
and in Friedberg (p. 131). The English translator of Quirinus has substituted the English 
original as given here. 

1 According to Manning, but only 65 according to Friedberg, p. 47. 

2 Hence the title 'Concio habenda at non habita' — prepared for speaking, but not spoken. 
See the prefatory note, dated Home, June 8, 1870. 

3 Manning, Petri Privil. III. pp. 81, 32. He gives this representation to vindicate the 
liberty of the Council; but the minority complained of an arbitrary close of the discussion. 
They held an indignation meeting in the residence of Cardinal Kauscher, and protested 'con- 
tra violationem nostri juris,' but without effect. See the protest, with eighty-one signatures, 
in Friedrich, Doc. II. p. 379 ; comp. Frommann, Geschichte, p. 174. 

4 See the list in Friedberg, pp. 146-149 ; also in Friedrich, Docum. II. pp. 426 sqq. ; and 
Quirinus, Letter LXVI. pp. 778 sqq. Quirinus errs in counting the 91 (according to others, 
85 or only 70) absentees among the 601. There were in all from 680 to 692 members present 
in Rome at the time. See Fessler, p. 89 (who states the number of absentees to be ' over 80 '), 
and Frommann, p. 201. The protest of the minority to the Pope, July 17, states the number 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 75 

tinguished for learning and position, as Schwarzenberg, Cardinal 
Prince- Archbishop of Prague ; Rattscher, Cardinal Prince-Archbishop 
of Vienna ; Dakboy, Archbishop of Paris ; Matthieu, Cardinal-Arch- 
bishop of Besancon ; Ginoulhiac, Archbishop of Lyons ; Dupanloup, 
Bishop of Orleans; Maret, Bishop of Sura (i. p.) ; Simor, Archbishop 
of Gran and Primate of Hungary; Haynald, Archbishop of Kalocsa; 
Forster, Prince- Archbishop of Breslau ; Scherr, Archbishop of Mu- 
nich ; Ketteler, Bishop of Mayence ; Hefele, Bishop of Rottenburg ; 
Strossmayer, Bishop of Bosnia and Sirraium ; MacHale, Archbishop 
of Tuam ; Connolly, Archbishop of Halifax ; Kenrick, Archbishop of 
St. Louis. 

On the evening of the 13th of July the minority sent a deputation, 
consisting of Simor, Ginoulhiac, Scherr, Darboy, Ketteler, and Rivet, 
to the Pope. After waiting an hour, they were admitted at 9 o'clock 
in the evening. They asked simply for a withdrawal of the addition 
to the third chapter, which assigns to the Pope the exclusive posses- 
sion of all ecclesiastical powers, and for the insertion, in the fourth 
chapter, of a clause limiting his infallibility to those decisions which 
he pronounces ' innixus testimonio ecclesiarmn? Pius returned the 
almost incredible answer : ' I shall do what I can, my clear sons, but I 
have not yet read the scheme ; I do not know what it contains.' 1 He 
requested Darboy, the spokesman of the deputation, to hand him the 
petition in writing. Darboy promised to do so ; and added, not without 
irony, that he would send with it the schema which the Deputation on 
Faith and the Legates had with such culpable levity omitted to lay be- 
fore his Holiness, exposing him to the risk of proclaiming in a few days 
a decree he was ignorant of. Pius surprised the deputation by the 
astounding assurance that the whole Church had always taught the 
unconditional Infallibility of the Pope. Then Bishop Ketteler of 
Mayence implored the holy Father on his knees to make some conces- 



of voters in the same way, except that 70, instead of 91 or 85, is given as the number of absen- 
tees : l Notum est Sanctitati Vestrce, 88 Patres fiiisse, qui, conscientia urgente et amore s. Ec- 
clesice permoti, suffragium mumper verba non placet emiserunt ; 62 alios, qui suffragati sunt 
per verba placet juxta modtjm, denique 70 circiter qui a congregatione abfuerunt atque a 
suffragio emittendo abstinuerunt. Hie accedunt et alii, qui, infirmitatibus aut gravioribus 
rationibus ducti, ad suas diozceses reversi sunt.'' 

1 He spoke in French : l .Te ferai mon possible, mes chers Jils, mats je rfai pas encore lu le 
schema; je ne sais pas ce quil contient.'' Quirinus, Letter LXIX. p. 800. 



7(3 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



sion for the peace and unity of the Church. 1 This prostration of the 
proudest of the German prelates made some impression. Pius dis- 
missed the deputation in a hopeful temper. But immediately after- 
wards Manning and Senestrey (Bishop of Regensburg) strengthened his 
faith, and frightened him by the warning that, if he made any conces- 
sion, he would be disgraced in history as a second Honorins. 

In the secret session on the 16th of July, on motion of some Spanish 
Bishops, an addition was inserted i non autem ex consensu ecclesice] 
which makes the decree still more obnoxious. 2 On the same day Car- 
dinal Pauseher, in a private audience, made another attempt to induce 
the Pope to yield, but was told, £ It is too late,' 

On the 17th of July fifty-six Bishops sent a written protest to the 
Pope, declaring that nothing had occurred tp change their conviction 
as expressed in their negative vote ; on the contrary, they were con- 
firmed in it ; yet filial piety and reverence for the holy Father would 
not permit them to vote Non Placet, openly and in his face, in a matter 
which so intimately concerned his person, and that therefore they had 



1 Quirinns, Letter LXIX. p. 801 , gave, a few days afterwards, from direct information, the 
following fresh and graphic description of this interesting scene : ' Bishop Ketteler then came 
forward, flung himself on his knees before the Pope, and entreated for several minutes that 
the Father of the Catholic world would make some concession to restore peace and her lost 
unity to the Church and the Episcopate. It was a peculiar spectacle to witness these two 
men, of kindred and yet widely diverse nature, in such an attitude — the one prostrate on the 
ground before the other. Pius is " totus teres atque ?-otundus,'' firm and immovable, smooth 
and hard as marble, infinitely self-satisfied intellectually, mindless and ignorant ; without any 
understanding of the mental conditions and needs of mankind, without any notion of the 
character of foreign nations, but as credulous as a nun, and, above all, penetrated through 
and through with reverence for his own person as the organ of the Holy Ghost, and therefore 
an absolutist from head to heel, and filled with the thought, "I, and none beside me." He 
knows and believes that the Holy Virgin, with whom he is on the most intimate terms, will 
indemnify him for the loss of land and subjects by means of the Infallibility doctrine, and the 
restoration of the Papal dominion over states and peoples as well as over churches. He also 
believes firmly in the miraculous emanations from the sepulchre of St. Peter. At the feet 
of this man the German Bishop flung himself, "ipso Papa papalior," a zealot for the ideal 
greatness and unapproachable dignity of the Papacy, and, at the same time, inspired by the 
aristocratic feeling of a Westphalian nobleman and the hierarchical self-consciousness of a 
Bishop and successor of the ancient chancellor of the empire, while yet he is surrounded by 
the intellectual atmosphere of Germany, and, with all his firmness of belief, is sickly with the 
pallor of thought, and inwardly struggling with the terrible misgiving that, after all, historical 
facts are right, and that the ship of the Curia, though for the moment it proudly rides the 
waves with its sails swelled by a favorable wind, will be wrecked on that rock at last.' 

2 Quirinns, p. 804: : 'Thus the Infallibilist decree, as it is now to be received under anathema 
by the Catholic world, is an eminently Spanish production, as is fitting for a doctrine which 
was born and reared under the shadow of the Inquisition.' 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



77 



resolved to return forthwith to their flocks, which had already too long 
been deprived of their presence, and were now filled with apprehensions 
of war. Schwarzenberg, Matthieu, Simor, and Darboy head the list 
of signers. 1 On the evening of the same day not only the fifty-six 
signers, but sixty additional members of the opposition departed from 
Kome, promising to each other to make their future conduct dependent 
on mutual understanding. 

This was the turning-point : the opposition broke down by its own 
act of cowardice. They ought to have stood like men on the post of 
duty, and repeated their negative vote according to their honest convic- 
tions. They could thus have prevented the passage of this momentous 
decree, or at all events shorn it of its oecumenical weight, and kept it 
open for future revision and possible reversal. But they left Kome at 
the very moment when their presence was most needed, and threw an 
easy victory into the lap of the majority. 

WJien, therefore, the fourth public session was held, on the memora- 
ble 18th of July (Monday), there were but 535 Fathers present, and of 
these all voted Placet, with the exception of two, viz., Bishop Riccio, of 
Cajazzo, in Sicily, and Bishop Fitzgerald, of Little Rock, Arkansas, who 
had the courage to vote Non Placet, but immediately, before the close 
of the session, submitted to the voice of the Council. In this way a 
moral unanimity was secured as great as in the first Council of Mcsea, 
where likewise two refused to subscribe the Mcene Creed. ' What a 
wise direction of Providence,' exclaimed the Oiviltd cattolica, ' 535 yeas 
against 2 nays. Only two nays, therefore almost total unanimity ; and 
yet two nays, therefore full liberty of the Council. How vain are all 
attacks against the oecumenical character of this most beautiful of all 
Councils !' 

After the vote the Pope confirmed the decrees and canons on the 
Constitution of the Church of Christ, and added from his own inspira- 
tion the assurance that the supreme authority of the Roman Pontiff did 
not suppress but aid, not destroy but build up, and formed the best pro- 
tection of the rights and interests of the Episcopate. 2 



1 See the protest in Eriedberg, p. 622. Comp. Frommann, p. 207. 

8 i Summa ista Romani Pontificis auctoritas, Venerabiles Fratres, non opprimit seel adjurat, 
non destruit sed cedificat, et scepissime eonfirmat in dignitate, unit in charitate, et Fratrum, 
scilicet Episcoporum, jura firmat atque tuetur. Ideoque illi, qui nunc judicant in commotione, 



78 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



The days of the two most important public sessions of the Vatican 
Council, namely the first and the last, were the darkest and stormiest 
which Some saw from Dec. 8, 1869, to the 18th of July, 1870. The 
Episcopal votes and the Papal proclamation of the new dogma were 
accompanied by flashes of lightning and claps of thunder from the skies, 
and so great was the darkness which spread over the Church of St. Peter, 
that the Pope could not read the decree of his own Infallibility without 
the artificial light of a candle. 1 This voice of nature was variously in- 



seiant, non esse in commoiione Dominum. Meminerint, quod paucis abhinc minis, oppositain 
tenentes sententiam. abundaverunt in sensu Nostro, et in sensu jnajoris partis hujus amplissimi 
Consessus, sed tunc judic aver unt in spiritu auras lenis. Numquid in eodem judicio judicando 
duce oppositoz possunt existere conscientice ? Absit. Illuminet ergo Deus sensus et cor da : et 
quoniam Ipse facit mirabilia magna solus, illuminet sensus et corda, ut omnes accedere possint 
ad sinuni Patris. Christi Jesu in terris indigni Vicarii, qui eos a mat, eos diligit, et exoptat 
unum esse cum illis; et ita simul in vinculo charitatis covjuncti pro?liare possimus pradia 
Domini, ut non solum -non irrideant nos inimici nostri, sed timeant potius, et aliquando arma 
maUtice cedant in conspectu veritatis, sicque omnes cum D. Augustino dicere valeant: "Tu 
vocasti me in admirabile lumen tuum, et ecce video.''' ' I 

1 Quirinus, Letter LXIX. p. 809. A Protestant eye-witness, Prof. Ripley, thus described 
the scene in a letter from Rome, published in the New York Tribune (of which he is one of 
the editors) for Aug. 11, 1870 : ' Rome, July 19. — Before leaving Rome I send you a report 
of the last scene of that absurd comedy called the (Ecumenical Vatican Council. ... It is 
at least a remarkable coincidence that the opening and clo=ing sessions of the Council were 
inaugurated with fearful storms, and that the vigil of the promulgation of the dogma was cele- 
brated with thunder and lightning throughout the whole of the night. On the 8th of last 
December I was nearly drowned by the floods of rain, which came down in buckets : yester- 
day morning I went down in rain, and under a frowning sky which menaced terrible storms 
later in the day. . . . Kyrie eleison we heard as soon as the mass was said, and the whole 
multitude joined in singing the plaintive measure of the Litany of the Saints, and then with 
equal fervor was sung Yeni Creator, which was followed by the voice of a secretary reading 
in a high key the dogma. At its conclusion 'the names of the Fathers were called over, and 
Placet after Placet succeeded ad nauseam. But what a storm burst over the church at this 
moment ! The lightning flashed and the thunder pealed as we have not heard it this season 
before. Every Placet seemed to be announced by a flash and terminated by a clap of thun- 
der. Through the cupolas the lightning entered, licking, as it were, the very columns of the 
Baldachino over the tomb of St. Peter, and lighting up large spaces on the pavement. Sure. 
God was there — but whether approving or disproving what was going on, no mortal man can 
say. Enough that it was a remarkable coincidence, and so it struck the minds of all who 
were present. And thus the roll was called for one hour and a half, with this solemn accom- 
paniment, and then the result of the voting was taken to the Pope. The moment had arrived 
when he was to declare himself invested with the attributes of God — nay, a God upon earth. 
Looking from a distance into the hall, which was obscured by the tempest, nothing was visible 
but the golden mitre of the Pope, and so thick was the darkness that a servitor was compelled 
to bring a lighted candle and hold it by his side to enable him to read the formula by which 
he deified himself. And then — what is that indescribable noise ? Is it the raging of the storm 
above ? — the pattering of hail-stones ? It approaches nearer, and for a minute I most seri- 
ously say that I could not understand what that swelling sound was until I saw a cloud of 
white handkerchiefs waving in the air. The Fathers had begun with clapping — they were 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 79 

terpreted, either as a condemnation of Gallicanism and liberal Cathol- 
icism, or as a divine attestation of the dogma like that which accom- 
panied the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai, or as an evil 
omen of impending calamities to the Papacy. 

And behold, the day after the proclamation of the dogma, Napoleon 
III., the political ally and supporter of Pius IX., unchained the furies of 
war, which in a few weeks swept away the Empire of France and the 
temporal throne of the infallible Pope. His own subjects forsook him, 
and almost unanimously voted for a new sovereign, whom he had ex- 
communicated as the worst enemy of the Church. A German Empire 
arose from victorious battle-fields, and Protestantism sprung to the po- 
litical and military leadership of Europe. About half a dozen Prot- 
estant. Churches have since been organized in Rome, where none was 
tolerated before, except outside of the walls or in the house of some 
foreign embassador; a branch of the Bible Society was established, 
which the Pope in his Syllabus denounces as a pest ; and a public de- 
bate was held in which even the presence of Peter at Pome was called 
in question. History records no more striking example of swift retri- 
bution of criminal ambition. Once before the jPapacy was shaken to 
its base at the very moment when it felt itself most secure : Leo X. had 
hardly concluded the fifth and last Lateran Council in March, 1517, 
with a celebration of victory, when an humble monk in the North of 
Europe sounded the key-note of the great Reformation. 

What did the Bishops of the minority do ? They all submitted, even 
those who had been mosf vigorous in opposing, not only the opportu- 
nity of the definition, but the dogma itself. Some hesitated long, but 
yielded at last to the heavy pressure. Cardinal Rauscher, of Vienna, 
published the decree already in August, and afterwards withdrew his 
powerful ' Observations on the Infallibility of the Church 5 from the 
market; regarding this as an act of glorious self-denial for the wel- 
fare of the Church. Cardinal Schwarzenberg, of Prague, waited with 
the publication till Jan. 11, 1871, and shifted the responsibility upon his 



the fuglemen to the crowd who took up the notes and signs. of rejoicing until the church of 
God was converted into a theatre for the exhibition of human passions. " Viva Pio Nono /" 
"Viva il Papa Infallibile /" '■'■Viva il trionfo dei Cattolici /" were shouted by this priestly 
assembly ; and again another round they had ; and yet another was attempted as soon as the 
Te Deum had been sung and the benediction had been given.' 



I 



•80 HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

theological advisers. Bishop Hefele, of Rottenburg, who has forgotten 
more about the history of Councils than the infallible Pope ever knew, 
after delaying till April 10, IS 71, submitted, not because he had changed 
his conviction, but, as he says, because 'the peace and unity of the 
Church is so great a good that great and heavy personal sacrifices may 
be made for it ;' i. e., truth must be sacrificed to peace. Bishop Maret, 
who wrote two learned volumes against Papal Infallibility and in de- 
fense of Gallicanism, declared in his retractation that he ' wholly re- 
jects every thing in his work which is opposed to the dogma of the 
Council,' and c withdraws it from sale.' Archbishop Kenrick yielded, 
but has not refuted his Concio habenda at non habita, which remains 
an irrefragable argument against the new dogma. Even Strossmayer, 
the boldest of the bold in the minority, lost his courage, and keeps 
his peace. Darboy died a martyr in the revolt of the communists of 
Paris, in April, 1871. In a conversation with Dr. Michaud, Vicar of 
St. Madeleine, who since seceded from Rome, he counseled external 
and official submission, with a mental reservation, and in the hope of 
better times. His successor, Msgr. Guibert, published. the decrees a 
year later (April, 1872), without asking the permission of the head of 
the French Republic. Of those opponents who, though not members 
of the Council, carried as great weight as any Prelate, Montalembert 
died during the Council ; Xewman kept silence ; Pere Gratry, who 
had declared and proved that the question of Honorius * is totally gan- 
grened by fraud,' wrote from his death-bed at Montreux, in Switzer- 
land (Feb, 1872), to the new Archbishop of Paris, that he submitted to 
the Vatican Council, and effaced ' every thing to the contrary he may 
have written.' 1 

It is said that the adhesion of the minority Bishops was extorted by 
the threat of the Pope not to renew their 4 quinquennial faculties' 
(facilitates quinquemiales), that is, the Papal licenses renewed every 
five years, permitting them to exercise extraordinary episcopal func- 
tions which ordinarily belong to the Pope, as the power of absolving 
from heresy, schism, apostasy, secret crime (except murder), from vows, 
duties of fasting, the power of permitting the reading of prohibited 

1 See details on the reception and publication of the Vatican decrees in Friedberg, pp. 53 
sqq., 775 sqq. ; Frommann. pp. 215-230 : on Gratry, the Annales de Philosophize Chretienne, 
Sept. 1871, p. 23G. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 81 

books (for the purpose of refutation), marrying within prohibited de- 
grees, etc. 1 

But, aside from this pressure, the following considerations sufficiently 
explain the fact of submission. 

1. Many of the dissenting Bishops were professedly anti-Inf allibilists, 
not from principle, but only from subordinate considerations of expe- 
diency, because they apprehended that the definition would provoke 
the hostility of secular governments, and inflict great injury on Catholic 
interests, especially in Protestant countries. Events have since proved 
that their apprehension was well founded. 

2. All Roman Bishops are under an oath of allegiance to the Pope, 
which binds them ' to preserve, defend, increase, and advance the rights, 
honors, privileges, and authority of the holy Pom an Church, of our lord 
the Pope, and his successors.' 

. 3. The minority Bishops defended Episcopal infallibility against Pa- 
pal infallibility. They claimed for themselves what they denied to the 
Pope. Admitting the infallibility of an oecumenical Council, and for- 
feiting by their voluntary absence on the day of voting the right of 
their protest, they must either on their own theory accept the decision 
of the Council, or give up their theory, cease to be Roman Catholics, 
and run the risk of a new schism. 

At the same time this submission is an instructive lesson of the fear- 
ful spiritual despotism of the Papacy, which overrules the stubborn 
facts of history and the sacred claims of individual conscience. For 
the facts so clearly and forcibly brought out before and during the 
Council by such men as Kenrick, Hefele, Rauscher, Maret, Sehwarzen- 
berg, and Dupanloup, have not changed, and can never be undone. On 
the one hand we find the results of a life-long, conscientious, and thor- 
ough study of the most learned divines of the Roman Church, on 
the other ignorance, prejudice, perversion, and defiance of Scripture 
and tradition ; on the one hand we have history shaping theology, on 
the other theology ignoring or changing history ; on the one hand the 
just exercise of reason, on the other blind submission, which destroys 
reason and conscience. But truth must and will prevail at last. 

1 See the article Facultdten, in Wetzeu und Welte's Kirchenlexikon oder EncyMop. der 
katholischen Theologie,V ol. III. pp. 879 sqq. 

F 



82 HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Papal Infallibility Explained, and Tested by Teadition and 

Sceiptuee. 

Literature. 
I. Fop. Infallibility. 

The older defenders of Infallibility are chiefly Bellaemin, Balleeini, Litta, Alphons de Liguoei 
(whom the Pope raised to the dignity of a doctor ecclesice, March 11,1872), Card. Ossi, Peeeone, and Jo- 
seph Count be Maistee (Sardinian statesman, d. at Turin Feb. 26, 1821, author of Du Pape, 1819 ; new 
edition, Paris, 1843, with the Homeric motto : eh Koipavos eo-™). 

During and after the Vatican Council : the works of Archbishops Manning and Dechamps, already 
quoted, pp. 134, 135. 

Jos. Caeboni (Archbishop of Edessa,in partibus) : Elucubratio de dogmatica Romani Pontiftcis Infal- 
libilitate ejusque Dcfinibilitate, Romae (typis Civilitatis Cattolicas), 1870 (May, 174 pp.). The chief work 
on the Papal side, clothed with a semi-official character. 

Heemann Rump : Die Unfehlbarkeit des Papstes und die Stellung der in Deutschland verbreiteten theolo- 
gifichen Lehrbiichcr zu dieser Lehre, Minister, 1870 (173 pp.). 

Feanz Feiebhoff (Prof, at Munster) : Gegen-Ervougungen uber die pdpstliche Unfehlbarkeit, Miinster, 

1869 (21 pp.). Superficial. 

Flos. Riess and Kael von Webee (Jesuits) : Das OeJcum. Concil. Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, NeueFolge, 
No. X. Die piipstliche Unfehlbarkeit und der alte Glaube der Kirche, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1870 (110 pp.). 

G. Bickel: Grundefiir die Unfehlbarkeit des Kirchenoberhauptes nebst Widerlegung der Einwurfe,Wm- 
ster, 1S70. 

Rev. P. Weningee (Jesuit) : Vinfaillibilite du Pape devant la raison et Vecriture, les papes et les con- 
ciles, les peres et les theologiens, les rois et les empereurs. Translated from the German into French by 
P. Belet. (Highly spoken of by Pius IX. in a brief to Abbe Belet, Nov. 17, 1869 ; see Friedberg, 1. c. 
p. 487. Weninger wrote besides several pamphlets on Infallibility in German, Innsbruck, 1841 ; Graz, 
1853 ; in English, New York and Cincinnati, 1868. Archbishop Kenrick, in his Concio, speaks of him as 
• a pious and extremely zealous but ignorant man,' whom he honored with ' the charity of silence' when 
requested to recommend one of his books.) 

Widerlegung der vier unter die Vater des Coneils vertheilten Brochuren gegen die Unfehlbarkeit (transl. 
of Animadversiones in quatuor contra Romani Pontiftcis infallibilitatem editos libcllos), Munster, 1S70. 

Bishop Jos. Fesslee : Die wahre und die falsche Unfehlbarkeit der Piipste (against Prof, von Schulte), 
Wien, 1871. 

Bishop Kettelee: Das unfehlbare Lehramt des Papstes, nach der Entscheidung des Vaticanischen Con- 
eils, Mainz, 1871, Ste Aufl. 

M. J. Scheeben : Schulte und D't'Ulinger, gegen das Concil. Kritische Beleuchtung, etc., Regensburg, 1S71. 
Prof. Amebee be Maegeeie: Lettre auR.P. Gratnjsur le Pape Honorius et le Breviaire iiomam, Nancy, 
1870. 

II. Against Infallibility. 
(a) By Members of the Council. 

Mgr. H. L. C. Maeet (Bishop of Sura, in part., Canon of St. Denis and Dean of the Theological Faculty 
in Paris) : Du Concile general et de la paix religieuse, Paris, 1869, 2 Tom. (pp. 554 and 555). An elaborate 
defense of Gallicanism ; since revoked by the author, and withdrawn from sale. 

Petee Richard Keneick (Archbishop of St. Louis) : Concio in Concilio Vaticano habenda at non habita, 
Neapoli (typis fratrum de Angelis in via Pellegrini 4), 1870. Reprinted in Friedrich, Documenta, I. pp. 1S7- 
226. An English translation in L. W. Bacon's An Inside View of the Vatican Council, New York, pp. 90-166. 

Qu^estio (no place or date of publication). A very able Latin dissertation occasioned and distributed 
(perhaps partly prepared) by Bishop Kettelee, of Mayence, during the Council. It was printed but not 
published in Switzerland, in 1870, and reprinted in Friedrich, Documenta, I. pp. 1-128. 

La liberte du Concile et Vinfaillibilite. Written or inspired by Daeboy, Archbishop of Paris. Only fifty 
copies were printed, for distribution among the Cardinals. Reprinted in Friedrich, Documenta, I. pp. 
129-186. 

Card. Rauschee: Observationes quosdam de infallibilitatis eccksice subjeeto, Neapoli and Vindobonse, 

1870 (83 pp.). 

De Summi Pontiftcis infallibilitatc personali, Neapoli, 1870 (32 pp.). Written by Prof. SalesiusMayee, 
and distributed in the Council by Cardinal Schwarzenberg. 

Jos. be Hefele (Bishop of Rottenburg, formerly Prof, at Tiibingen): Causa Honorii Papoe, Neap. 1S70 
(pp.28). The same: Honorius und das sechste allgemeine Concil (with an appendix against Pennachi, 
43 pp.), Tubingen, 1870. English translation, with introduction, by Dr. Heney B. Smith, in the Presby- 
terian Quarterly and Princeton Review, New York, for April, 1872, pp. 273 sqq. Against Hefele comp. 
Jos. Pennachi (Prof, of Church History in Rome) : De Honorii I. Pontiftcis Romani causa in Concilio VL 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 83 

(&) By Catholics, not Members of the Council. 
Janus : The Pope and the Council, 1869. See above, p. 134. 

Erwugungen far die Bischo/e des Conciliums itber die Frage der papstlichen Un/ehlbarkeit, Oct. 18G9. 
Dritte Aufl. Miinchen. [By J. von Dollingee.] 

J. von Dollingee: Einige Worte uber die Un/ehlbarkeitsadresse, etc., Miinchen, 1870. 

Jos. H. Eeinkens (Prof, of Church History iu Breslau) : Ueber pdpstliche Un/ehlbarkeit, Miinchen, 1870. 

Clemens Sohmitz (Cath. Priest) : 1st der Papst unfehlbart Aus Deutschlands und des P. Deharbe Cate- 
chismen beantwortet, Miinchen, 1870. 

J. Fe. Eittee von Sohulte (Prof, in Prague, now in Bonn) : Das Un/ehlbarkeits-Decret vom IS Juli 
1870 avf seine Verbindlichkeit geprii/t, Prague, 1870. Die Macht der rbm. Pdpste uber Farsten, Lander, 
Vblker, etc. seit Gregor VII. zur Wurdigung ihrer Un/ehlbarkeit beleuchtet, etc., 2d edition, Prague. The 
same, translated into English (The Power o/ the Roman Popes over Princes, etc.), by Alfred Somers [a 
brother of Schulte], Adelaide, 1871. 

A. Geatry (Priest of the Oratoire and Member of the French Academy) : Four Letters to the Bishop o/ 
Orleans (Dupanloup) and the Archbishop o/ Malraes (Dechamps), in French, Paris, 1870; several editions, 
also translated into German, English, etc. These learned and eloquent letters gave rise to violent con- 
troversies. They were denounced by several Bishops, and prohibited in their dioceses ; approved by 
others, and by Montalembert. The Pope praised the opponents. Against him wrote Dechamps (Three 
Letters to Gratry, in French ; German translation, Mayence, 1870) and A. de Margerie. Gratry recanted 
on his death-bed. 

P. Le Page Eenodp : The Case o/ Pope Honorius, Lond. 1S6& 

Antonio Mageassi: Lo Schema sulV in/allibilitd personale del Romano Pontef.ce, Alessandria, 1870 
(64 pp.). 

Delia pretesa ir/allibilitd personale del Romano Pontefice, 2d ed., Firenze, 1S70 (Anonymous, 80 pp.). 
J. A. B. Luttekbeok: Die Clementinen und ihr Verhultniss zian Un/ehlbarkeitsdogma, Giessen, 1872 
(pp. 85). 

The sinlessness of the Virgin Mary and the personal infallibility of 
the Pope are the characteristic dogmas of modern Eomanism, the two 
test dogmas which must decide the ultimate fate of this system. Both 
were enacted under the same Pope, and both faithfully reflect his char- 
acter. Both have the advantage of logical consistency from certain 
premises, and seem to be the very perfection of the Romish form of 
piety and the Romish principle of authority. Both rest on pious fiction 
and fraud ; both present a refined idolatry by clothing a pure humble 
woman and a mortal sinful man with divine attributes. The dogma 
of the Immaculate Conception, which exempts the Virgin Mary from 
sin and guilt, perverts Christianism into Marianism ; the dogma of In- 
fallibility, which exempts the Bishop of Rome from error, resolves 
Catholicism into Papalism, or the Church into the Pope. The wor- 
ship of a woman is virtually substituted for the worship of Christ, and 
a man-god in Rome for the God-Man in heaven. This is a severe 
. judgment, but a closer examination will sustain it. 

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, being confined to the 
sphere of devotion, passed into the modern Roman creed without seri- 
ous difficulty*; but the dogma of Papal Infallibility, which involves a 
question of absolute power, forms an epoch in the history of Roman- 
ism, and created the greatest commotion and a new secession. It is 
in its very nature the most fundamental and most comprehensive of 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



of all dogmas. 1 It contains the whole system in a nutshell. It con- 
stitutes a new rule of faith. It is the article of the standing or fall- 
ing Church. It is the direct antipode of the Protestant principle of the 
absolute supremacy and infallibility of the Holy Scriptures. It estab- 
lishes a perpetual divine oracle in the Vatican. Every Catholic may 
hereafter say, I believe — not because Christ, or the Bible, or the Church, 
but — because the infallible Pope has so declared and commanded. 
Admitting this do^ma, we admit not onlv the whole bodv of doctrines 
contained in the Tridentine standards, but all the official Papal bulls, 
including the mediaeval monstrosities of the Syllabus (lS6-±), the con- 
demnation of Jansenism, the bull £ Unam Sanctum ' of Boniface VIII. 
(1302), which, under pain of damnation, claims for the Pope the double 
sword, the secular as well as the spiritual, over the whole Christian 
world, and the power to depose princes and to absolve subjects from 
their oath of allegiance. 1 The past is irreversibly settled, and in all 
future controversies on faith and morals we must look to the same 
unerring tribunal in the Vatican. Even oecumenical Councils are 
superseded hereafter, and would be a mere waste of time and 
strength. 

On the other hand, if the dogma is false, it involves a blasphemous 
assumption, and makes the nearest approach to the fulfillment of 
St. Paul's prophecy of the man of sin, who 1 as God sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself off that he is God' (2 Thess. ii. 4). 

Let us first see what the dogma does not mean, and what it does 
mean. 

It does not mean that the Pope is infallible in his private opinions 
on theology and religion. As a man, he may be a heretic (as Liberius, 
Honorius, and John XXII.), or even an unbeliever (as John XXIII., 



: This bull has been often disowned by Catholics (e. g.. by the Universities, of Sorbonne, 
Louvain, Aleala, Salamanca, when officially asked by Mr. Pitt. Prime Minister of Great Brit- 
ain, 1788, also by Martin John Spalding, Archbishop of Baltimore, in his Lectures on 
Evidences, 1866), and, to some extent, even by Pius EX. (see Friedberg. p. 718). but it is 
unquestionably official, and was renewed and approved by the fifth Lateran Council. Pec. 
19, 1516. Paul III. and Pius V. acted upon it, the former in excommunicating and depos- 
ing Henry VUL of England, the latter in deposing Queen Elizabeth, exciting her subjects 
to rebellion, and urging Philip of Spain to declare war against her (see the Bullarinm Bom., 
Camden, Burnet, Froude, etc.). The Papal Syllabus sanctions it by implication, in Xo. 23. 
which condemns as an error the opinion that Koman Pontiffs have exceeded the limits of 
their power. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



85 



and, perhaps, Leo X.), and yet, at the same time, infallible as Pope, 
after the fashion of Balaam and Kaiphas. 

JSTor does it mean that infallibility extends beyond the proper sphere 
of religion and the Church. The Pope may be ignorant of science and 
literature, and make grave mistakes in his political administration, or 
be misinformed on matters of fact (unless necessarily involved in doc- 
trinal decisions), and yet be infallible in defining articles of faith. 1 

Infallibility does not imply impeccability. And yet freedom from 
error and freedom from sin are so nearly connected in men's minds 
that it seems utterly impossible that such moral monsters as Alexander 
YI. and those infamous Popes who disgraced humanity during the 
Roman pornocracy in the tenth and eleventh centuries, should have 
been vicars of Jesus Christ and infallible organs of the Holy Ghost. 
If the inherent infallibility of the visible Church logically necessitates 
the infallibility of the visible head, it is difficult to see why the same 
logic should not with equal conclusiveness derive the jDersonal holiness 
of the head from the holiness of the body. 

On the other hand, tne dogma does mean that all official utterances 
of the Eoman Pontiff addressed to the Catholic Church on matters of 
Christian faith and duty are infallibly true, and must be accepted with 
the same faith as the word of the living God. They are not simply 
final in the sense in which all decisions of an absolute government or 
a supreme court of justice are final until abolished or superseded by 
other decisions, 2 but they are irreformable, and can never be revoked. 
This infallibility extends over eighteen centuries, and is a special privi- 
lege conferred by Christ upon Peter, and through him upon all his legiti- 
mate successors. It belongs to every Pope from Clement to Pius IX., 
and to every Papal bull addressed to the Catholic world. It is per- 



1 Pope Pius IX. started as a political reformer, and set in motion that revolution which, 
notwithstanding his subsequent reactionary course, resulted in the unification of Italy and 
the loss of the States of the Church, against which he now so bitterly protests. 

3 In this general sense Joseph de Maistre explains infallibility to be the same in the spir- 
itual order that sovereignty means in the civil order : 'Dun et V autre expriment cette haute 
puissance qui les domine toutes, dont toutes les autres derivent, qui gouverne et nest pas gou- 
verne'e, qui jug e et nest pas jugee. Quand nous disons gue VEglise est infaillible, nous ne de- 
mandons pour elle, il est bien essentiel de Vobserver, aucun privilege particulier; nous demandons 
seidement qu'elle jouisse du droit commun a toutes les souverainete's possible qui toutes agissent 
necessairement coimne infaillibles ; car tout gouvernement est absolu; et du moment ou F on peut 
lui rtsister sous pretexte derreur ou d injustice, il n'existe plus.' Du Pape, ch. i., pp. 15, 16. 



86 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



sonal, i. e., inherent in Peter and the Popes ; it is independent, and 
needs no confirmation from the Church or an oecumenical Council, 
either preceding or succeeding ; its decrees are binding, and can not be 
rejected without running the risk of eternal damnation. 1 

Even within the narrow limits of the Vatican decision there is room 
for controversy on the precise meaning of the figurative term ex cathe- 
dra logui, and the extent of faith and morals, viz., whether Infallibil- 
ity includes only the supernatural order of revealed truth and duty, or 
also natural and political duties, and questions of mere history, such as 
Peter's residence in Rome, the number of oecumenical Councils, the 
teaching of Jansen and Quesnel, and other disputed facts closely con- 
nected with dogmas. But the main point is clear enough. The Ultra- 
montane theory is established, Gallicanism is dead and buried. 

Ultramontanism and Gallicanism. 

The Vatican dogma is the natural completion of the Papal polity, as 
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is the completion 
of the Papal cultus. 

If we compare the Papal or Ultramontane theory with the Episcopal 
or Gallican theory, it has the undeniable advantage of logical consist- 
ency. The two systems are related to each other like monarchy and 
aristocracy, or rather like absolute monarchy and limited monarchy. 
The one starts from the divine institution of the Primacy (Matt. xvi. 18), 

1 Archbishop Manning {Petri Privil. III. pp. 112, 113) defines the doctrine of Infallibility 
in this way : 

' 1. The privilege of infallibility is personal, inasmuch as it attaches to the Eoman Pontiff, 
the successor of Peter, as & public person, distinct from, but inseparably united to, the Church; 
but it is not personal, in that it is attached, not to the private person, but to the primacy 
which he alone possesses. 

' 2. It is also independent, inasmuch as it does not depend upon either the Ecclesia docens 
or the Ecclesia discens ; but it is not independent, in that it depends in all things upon the 
divine head of the Church, upon the institution of the primacy by him, and upon the assist- 
ance of the Holy Ghost. 

' 3. It is absolute, inasmuch as it can be circumscribed by no human or ecclesiastical law ; 
it is not absolute, in that it is circumscribed by the office of guarding, expounding, and de- 
fending the deposit of revelation. 

' 4. It is separate in no sense, nor can be, nor can be so called, without manifold heresy, 
unless the word be taken to mean distinct. In this sense, the Roman Pontiff is distinct from 
the Episcopate, and is a distinct subject of infallibility; and in the exercise of his supreme 
doctrinal authority, or magisterium, he does not depend for the infallibility of his definitions 
upon the consent or consultation of the Episcopate, but only on the divine assistance of the 
Holy Ghost.' 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



87 



and teaches the infallibility of the head ; the other starts from the di- 
vine institution of the Episcopate (Matt, xviii. 18), and teaches the infal- 
libility of the body and the superiority of an oecumenical Council over 
the Pope. Conceding once the infallibility of the collective Episcopate, 
we must admit, as a consequence, the infallibility of the Primacy, which 
represents the Episcopate, and forms its visible and permanent centre. If 
the body of the teaching Church can never err, the head can not err; and, 
vice versa, if the head is liable to error, the body can not be free from 
error. The Gallican theory is an untenable via media. It secures only 
a periodic and intermittent infallibility, which reveals itself in an oecu- 
menical Council, and then relapses into a quiescent state ; but the Ultra- 
montane theory teaches an unbroken, ever living, and ever active infalli- 
bility, which alone can fully answer the demands of an absolute authority. 

To refute Papal infallibility is to refute also Episcopal infallibility ; 
for the higher includes the lower. The Yatican Council is the best argu- 
ment against the infallibility of oecumenical Councils, for it sanctioned 
a fiction, in open and irreconcilable contradiction to older oecumenical 
Councils, which not only assumed the possibility of Papal fallibility, 
but actually condemned a Pope as a heretic. The fifth Lateran Coun- 
cil (1512) declared the decrees of the Council of Pisa (1409) null and 
void ; the Council of Florence denied the validity of the Council of 
Basle, and this denied the validity of the former. The Council of Con- 
stance condemned and burned John Hus for teaching evangelical doc- 
trines ; and this fact forced upon Luther, at the disputation with Eck at 
Leipzig, the conviction that even oecumenical Councils may err. Eome 
itself has rejected certain canons of Constantinople and Chalcedon, 
which put the Pope on a par with the Patriarch of Constantinople ; and 
a strict construction of the Papal theory would rule out the old oecu- 
menical Councils, because they were not convened nor controlled by the 
Pope ; while the Greek Church rejects all Councils which were purely 
Latin. 

The Bible makes no provision and has no promise for an oecumenical 
Council. 1 The Church existed and flourished for more than three hun- 
dred years before such a Council was heard of. Large assemblies are 

1 The Synod of Jerusalem, composed of Apostles, Elders, and Brethren, and legislating in 
favor of Christian liberty, differs very widely from a purely hierarchical Council, which ex- 
cludes Elders and Brethren, and imposes new burdens upon the conscience. 



ss 



HISTOKY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



often ruled by passion, intrigue, and worldly ambition (remember the 
complaints of Gregory of Nazianzum on the Synods of the Nicene age). 
Majorities are not necessarily decisive in matters of faith. Christ prom- 
ised to be even with two or three who are gathered in his name (Matt, 
xviii. 20). Elijah and the seven thousand who had not bowed the 
knee to Baal were right over against the great mass of the people of 
Israel. Athanasius versus mundum represented the truth, and the 
world versus Athanasium was in error during the ascendency of 
Arianism. In the eighteenth century the Church, both Catholic and 
Protestant, was under the power of infidelity, and true Christianity 
had to take refuge in small communities. Augustine maintained that 
one Council may correct another, and attain to a .more perfect knowl- 
edge of truth. The history of the Church is unintelligible without the 
theory of progressive development, which implies many obstructions 
and temporary diseases. All the attributes of the Church are subject 
to the law of gradual expansion and growth, and will not be finally 
complete till the second coming of our Lord. 

The Infallibility of the Pope and Personal Besjponsibility. 

The Christian Church, as a divine institution, can never fail and, 
never lose the truth. Christ has pledged his Spirit and life-giving 
presence to his people to the end of time, and even to two or three of 
his humblest disciples assembled in his name ; yet they are not on 
that account infallible. He gave authority in matters of discipline to 
every local Church (Matt, xviii. 17) ; and yet no one claims infallibility 
to every congregation. The Holy Spirit will always guide believers into 
the truth, and the unerring Word of God can never perish. But local 
churches, like individuals, may fall into error, and be utterly destroyed 
from the face of the earth. The true Church of Christ always makes 
progress, and will go on conquering and to conquer to the end of the 
world. But the particular churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexan- 
dria, Constantinople, Asia Minor, and North Africa, where once the 
Apostles and St. Augustine taught, have disappeared', or crumbled into 
ruin, or have been overrun by the false prophet. 

The truth will ever be within the reach of the sincere inquirer 
wherever the gospel is preached and the sacraments are rightly admin- 
istered. God has revealed himself plainly enough for all purposes of 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



89 



salvation ; and yet not so plainly as to supersede the necessity of faith, 
and to resolve Christianity into a mathematical demonstration. He 
has given ns a rational mind to think and to judge, and a free will to 
accept or to reject. Christian faith is no blind submission, but an intel- 
ligent assent. It implies anxiety to inquire as well as willingness to 
receive. We are expressly directed to ' prove all things, and to hold fast 
that which is good' (1 Thess. v. 21); to try the spirits whether they are 
of God (1 John iv. 1), and to refuse obedience even to an angel from 
heaven if he preach a different gospel (Gal. i. 8). The Beroean 
Jews are commended as being more noble than those of Thessalonica, 
because they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and yet 
searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things w T ere so (Acts xvii. 
11). It was from the infallible Scriptures alone, and not from tra- 
dition, that Paul and Apollos reasoned, after the example of Christ, 
who appeals to Moses and the Prophets, and speaks disparagingly of 
the traditions of the elders as obscuring the Word of God or destroy- 
ing its true effect. 1 

In opposition to all this the Vatican dogma requires a wholesale 
slaughter of the intellect and will, and destroys the sense of personal 
responsibility. The fundamental error, the irpurov \pzv$og of Kome is 
that she identifies the true ideal Church of Christ with the empirical 
Church, and the empirical Church with the Pomish Church, and the 
Romish Church with the Papacy, and the Papacy with the Pope, and 
at last substitutes a mortal man for the living Christ, who is the only 
and ever present head of the Church, 6 which is his body, the fullness of 
him who filleth all in all.' Christ needs no vicar, and the very idea 
of a vicar implies the absence of the Master. 2 

1 It is remarkable that Christ always uses TrapadoaiQ in an unfavorable sense : see Matt, 
xv. 2, 3, 6; Mark vii. 3, 5, 8, 9, 13. So also Paul: Gal. i. 14; Col. ii. 8; while in 1 Cor. xi. 
2, and 2 Thess. ii. 15; iii. 6, «he uses the term in a good sense, as identical with the gospel he 
preached. 

2 I add here what Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, says on the Papal theory of Infallibility {System- 
atic Theology, New York, 1872, Vol. I. pp. 130, 150) : ' There is something simple and grand in 
this theory. It is wonderfully adapted to the tastes and wants of men. It relieves them of per- 
sonal responsibility. Every thing is decided for them. Their salvation is secured by merely 
submitting to be saved by an infallible, sin-pardoning, and grace-imparting Church. Many 
may be inclined to think that it would have been a great blessing had Christ left on earth a 
visible representative of himself, clothed with his authority to teach and govern, and an order 
of men dispersed through the world endowed with the gifts of the original Apostles — men 
every where accessible, to whom we could resort in all times of difficulty and doubt, and whose 



00 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Papal Infallibility tested by Tradition. 

The dogma of Papal Infallibility is mainly supported by an infer- 
ential dogmatic argument derived from the Primacy of Peter, who, as 
the Yicar of Christ, must also share in his infallibility ; or from the 
nature and aim of the Church, which is to teach men the way of salva- 
tion, and must therefore be endowed with an infallible and ever avail- 
able organ for that purpose, since God always provides the means to- 
gether with an end. A full-blooded Infallibilist, whose piety consists 
in absolute submission and devotion to his lord the Pope, is per- 
fectly satisfied with this reasoning, and cares little or nothing for the 
Bible and for history, except so far as they suit his purpose. If facts 
disagree with his dogmas, all the worse for the facts. All you have to 
do is to ignore or to deny them, or to force them, by unnatural inter- 
pretations, into reluctant obedience to the dogmas. 1 But after all, even 

decisions could be safely received as the decisions of Christ himself. God's thoughts, how- 
ever, are not as our thoughts. We know that when Christ was on earth men did not believe 
or obey him. We know that when the Apostles were still living, and their authority was 
still confirmed by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, the 
Church was distracted by heresies and schisms. If any in their sluggishness are disposed to- 
think that a perpetual body of infallible teachers would be a blessing, all must admit that the 
assumption of infallibility by the ignorant, the erring, and the wicked, must be an evil incon- 
ceivably great. The Romish theory, if true, might be a blessing ; if false, it must be an aw- 
ful curse. That it is false may be demonstrated to the satisfaction of all who do not wish it 
to be true, and who, unlike the Oxford tractarian, are not determined to believe it because 
they love it. . . . If the Church be infallible, its authority is no less absolute in the sphere of 
social and political life. It is immoral to contract or to continue an unlawful marriage, to 
keep an unlawful oath, to enact unjust laws, to obey a sovereign hostile to the Church. The 
Church, therefore, has the right to dissolve marriages, to free men from the obligations of 
their oaths, and citizens from their allegiance, to abrogate civil laws, and to depose sovereigns. 
These prerogatives have not only been claimed, but time and again exercised by the Church 
of Rome. They all of right belong to that Church, if it be infallible. As these claims are 
enforced by penalties involving the loss of the soul, they can not be resisted by those who ad- 
mit the Church to be infallible. It is obvious, therefore, that where this doctrine is held there 
can be no liberty of opinion, no freedom of conscience, no civil or political freedom. As the 
recent oecumenical Council of the Vatican has decided that this infallibility is vested in the 
Pope, it is henceforth a matter of faith with Romanists, that the Roman Pontiff is the abso- 
lute sovereign of the world. All men are bound, on the penalty of eternal death, to believe 
what he declares to be true, and to do whatever he decides is obligatory. ' 

1 Archbishop Manning (III. p. 118) speaks of history as 'a wilderness without guide or path,' 
and says : ' Whensoever any doctrine is contained in the divine revelation of the Church' 
[the very point which can not be proved in the case before us], 'all difficulties from human 
history are excluded, as Tertullian lays down, by prescription. The only source of revealed . 
truth is God ; the only channel of his revelation is the Church. No human history can de- 
clare what is contained in that revelation. The Church alone can determine its limits, and 
therefore its contents.' 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



91 



according to the Roman Catholic theory, Scripture and history or tra- 
dition are the two indispensable tests of the truth of a dogma. It has 
always been held that the Pope and the Bishops are not the creators 
and judges, but the trustees and witnesses of the apostolic deposit of 
faith, and that they can define and proclaim no dogma which is not 
well founded in primitive tradition, written or unwritten. According 
to the famous rule of Yincentius Lirinensis, a dogma must have three 
marks of catholicity: the catholicity of time (semper), of space (uftique), 
and of number (aft omnibus). The argument from tradition is abso- 
lutely essential to orthodoxy in the Roman sense, and, as hitherto held, 
more essential than Scripture proof. 1 The difference between Roman- 
ism and Protestantism on this point is this : Romanism requires proof 
from tradition first, from Scripture next, and makes the former indis- 
pensable, the latter simply desirable ; while Protestantism reverses the 
order, and with its theory of the Bible as the only rule of faith and 
practice, and as an inexhaustible mine of truth that yields precious ore 
to every successive generation of miners, it may even dispense with 
traditional testimony altogether, provided that a doctrine can be clearly 
derived from the Word of God. 

Now it can be conclusively proved that the dogma of Papal In- 
fallibility, like the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, 
lacks every one of the three marks of catholicity. It is a compara- 
tively modern innovation. It was not dreamed of for more than a 
thousand years, and is unknown to this day in the Greek Church, 
the oldest in the world, and in matters of antiquity always an im- 
portant witness. The whole history of Christianity would have taken 
a different course, if in all theological controversies an infallible tri- 
bunal in Rome could have been invoked. 2 Ancient Creeds, Councils, 



1 This Archbishop Kenrick, in his Concio, frankly admits : ' Irencei, Tertidliani, Augustini, 
Vincentii Lirinensis exempla secutus, jidei Catholicce probationes ex traditione potius quam 
ex Scripturarum interpretation qucerendas duxi; quce interpretatio, juxta Tertullianum ma- 
gis apta est ad veritatem obumbitandum quam demonstrandum. ' 

2 ' Die ganze Geschichte des ersten Jahrtausends der Kirche ware eine andere gewesen, wenn 
in.dem Bischof von Rom das Bewusstsein, in der Kirche auch nur eine Ahnung dav on gewesen 
ware, dass dort ein Quell unfehlbarer Wahrheit fiiesse. Statt all der bittern, verstorenden 
Kampfe gegen wirkliche oder vermeintliche Hdretiker, gegen die man Biicher schrieb und Sy- 
noden aller Art versammelte, wiirden alle Wohlmeinende sick auf den unfehlbaren Spruch des 
Papstes berufen haben, und mehr als einst das Orakel des Apollo zu Delphi wi'trde das zu 
Rom befragt worden sein. Dagegen war es in jenenJahrhunderten, als alles Christenthum auf 



92 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Fathers, and Popes can be summoned as witnesses against the Vatican 
dogma. 

1. The four oecumenical Creeds, the most authoritative expressions 
of the old Catholic faith of the Eastern and Western Churches, contain 
an article on the 'holy Catholic and Apostolic Church/ but not one 
word about the Bishops of Rome, or any other local Church. How 
easy and natural, yea, in view of the fundamental importance of the 
Infallibility dogma, how necessary would have been the insertion of Ro- 
man after the other predicates of the Church, or the addition of the 
article : ' The Pope of Rome, the successor of Peter and infallible vicar 
of Christ.' If it had been believed then as now, it would certainly ap- 
pear at least in the Roman form of the Apostles' Creed ; but this is as 
silent on this point as the Aquilejan, the African, the Gallican, and 
other forms. 

And this uniform silence of all the oecumenical Creeds is strength- 
ened by the numerous local Creeds of the .Nicene age, and by the vari- 
ous ante-Is icene rules of faith up to Tertullian and Irenseus, not one of 
which contains an allusion to such an article of faith. 

2. The oecumenical Councils of the first eight centuries, which are 
recognized by the Greek and Latin Churches alike, are equally silent 
about, and positively inconsistent with, Papal Infallibility. They were 
called by Greek Emperors, not by Popes ; they were predominantly, 
and some of them exclusively, Oriental ; they issued their decrees in 
their own name, and in the fullness of authority, without thinking of 
submitting them to the approval of Rome ; they even claimed the right 
of judging and condemning the Roman Pontiff, as well as any other 
Bishop or Patriarch. 

In the first Nicene Council there was but one representative of the 
Latin Church (Hosius of Spain) ; and in the second and the fifth oecu- 
menical Councils there was none at all. The second oecumenical Coun- 
cil (381), in the third canon, put the Patriarch of Constantinople on a par 
with the Bishop of Rome, assigning to the latter only a primacy of 
honor; and the fourth oecumenical Council (451) confirmed this canon 
in spite of the energetic protest of Pope Leo I. 



die Spitze eines Dogmas gestellt wurde, nichts unerhdrtes, dass auck ein Papst vor der sub- 
tilen Bestimmung des siegenden Dogma zum Haretiker wurde.' Hase, Pole?nik, Buch I. 
c. iv. p. 161. 



HISTOEY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



93 



But more than this: the sixth oecumenical Council, held 680, pro- 
nounced the anathema on Honorius, ' the former Pope of old Rome,' 
for teaching officially the Monothelite heresy ; and this anathema was 
signed by all the 'members of the Council, including the three delegates 
of the Pope, and was several times repeated by the seventh and eighth 
Councils, which were presided over by Papal delegates. But we must 
return to this famous case again in another connection. 

3. The Fathers, even those who unconsciously did most service to 
Pome, and laid the foundation for its colossal pretensions, yet had no 
idea of ascribing absolute supremacy and infallibility to the Pope. 

Clement of Rome, the first Roman Bishop of whom we have any 
authentic account, wrote a letter to the Church at Corinth — not in his 
name, but in the name of the Roman Congregation ; not with an air 
of superior authority, but as a brother to brethren — barely mentioning 
Peter, but eulogizing Paul, and with a clear consciousness of the great 
difference between an Apostle and a Bishop or Elder. 

Ignatius of Antioch, who suffered martyrdom in Rome under Tra- 
jan, highly as he extols Episcopacy and Church unity in his seven Epis- 
tles, one of which is addressed to the Roman Christians, makes no dis- 
tinction of rank among Bishops, but treats them as equals. 

Xrenseus of Lyons, the champion of the Catholic faith against the 
Gnostic heresy at the close of the second century, and the author of 
the famous and variously understood passage about the jpoteniior j>ri?i- 
cipalitas (irporua) ecclesice Romance, sharply reproved Victor of Rome 
when he ventured to excommunicate the Asiatic Christians for their 
different mode of celebrating Easter, and told him that it was contrary 
to Apostolic doctrine and practice to judge brethren on account of eat- 
ing and drinking, feasts and new moons. Cyprian, likewise a saint and 
a martyr, in the middle of the third century, in his zeal for visible and 
tangible unity against the schismatics of his diocese, first brought out 
the fertile doctrine of the Roman See as the chair of Peter and the 
centre of Catholic unity ; yet with all his Romanizing tendency he was 
the great champion of the Episcopal solidarity and equality system, and 
always addressed the Roman Bishop as his 6 brother' and 'colleague;' 
he even stoutly opposed Pope Stephen's view of the validity of heret- 
ical baptism, charging him with error, obstinacy, and presumption. 
He never yielded, and the African Bishops, at the third Council at 



94 HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

Carthage (256), emphatically indorsed his opposition. Firmilian, 
Bishop of Caesarea, and Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, likewise bit- 
terly condemned the doctrine and conduct of Stephen, and told him 
that in excommunicating others he only excommunicated himself. 

Augustine is often quoted by Infallibilists on account of his famous 
dictum, Homa locuta est, causa finita est} But he simply means that, 
since the Councils of Mileve and Carthage had spoken, and Pope Inno- 
cent I. had acceded to their decision, the Pelagian controversy was 
finally settled (although it was, after all, not settled till after his death, 
at *the Council of Ephesus). Had he dreamed of the abuse made of 
this utterance, 2 he would have spoken very differently. For the same 
Augustine apologized for Cyprian's opposition to Pope Stephen on the 
ground that the controversy had then not yet been decided by a Coun- 
cil, and maintained the view of the liability of Councils to correction 
and improvement by subsequent Councils. He moreover himself op- 
posed Pope Zosimus, when, deceived by Pelagius, he declared him 
sound in the faith, although Pope Innocent I. had previously excom- 
municated him as a dangerous heretic. And so determined were the 
Africans, under the lead of Augustine (417 and 418), that Zosimus 
finally saw proper to yield and to condemn Pelagianism in his i Epis- 
tola Tractoria? 

Gregory L, or the Great, the last of the Latin Fathers, and the 
first of the mediaeval Popes (590-604), stoutly protested against the 
assumption of the title oecumenical or universal Bishop on the part of 
the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria, and denounced this 
w T hole title and claim as Masphemous, anti- Christian, and devilish, 
since Christ alone was the Head and Bishop of the Church universal, 
w T hile Peter, Paul, Andrew, and John, were members under the samB 
Head, and heads only of single portions of the whole. Gregory would 
rather call himself 6 the servant of the servants of God,' which, in the 
mouths of his successors, pretending to be Bishops of bishops and Lords 
of lords, has become a shameless irony. 3 

1 Or in a modified form: ' Causa finita est, utinam aliquando finiatur error!' Serm. 131, 
c. 10. See Janus, Rauscher, von Schulte versus Cardoni and Hergenrother, quoted by From- 
mann, p. 424. 

2 As well as some other of his sententious sayings. His explanation of coge intrare was 
made to justify religious persecutions, from which his heart would have shrunk in horror. 

3 The passages of Gregory on this subject are well known to every scholar. And yet the 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



95 



As to. the Greek Fathers, it would be useless to quote them, for the 
entire Greek Church in her genuine testimonies has never accepted the 
doctrine of Papal supremacy, much less of Papal Infallibility. 

4. Heretical Popes. — We may readily admit the rock-like stability 
of the Roman Church in the early controversies on the Trinity and the 
Divinity of Christ, as compared with the motion and changeability of the 
Greek churches during the same period, when the East was the chief 
theatre of dogmatic controversy and progress. Without some founda- 
tion in history, the Vatican dogma could not well have arisen. It would 
be impossible to raise the claim of infallibility in behalf of the Patri- 
archs of Jerusalem, or Antioch, or Alexandria, or Constantinople, among 
whom were noted Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites, Monothelites, and 
other heretics. Yet there are not a few exceptions to the rule ; and as 
many Popes, in their lives, flatly contradicted their title of holiness, so 
many departed, in their views, from Catholic truth. That the Popes 
after the Reformation condemned and cursed Protestant truths well 
founded in the Scriptures, we leave here out of sight, and confine our 
reasoning to facts within the limits of Roman Catholic orthodoxy. 

The canon law assumes throughout that a Pope may openly teach 
heresy, or contumaciously contradict the Catholic doctrine ; for it de- 
clares that, while he stands above all secular tribunals, yet he can be 
judged and deposed for the crime of heresy. 1 This assumption was so 
interwoven in the faith of the Middle Ages that even the most power- 
ful of all Popes, Innocent III. (d. 1216), gave expression to it when he 
said that, though he was only responsible to God, he may sin against 
the faith, and thus become subject to the judgment of the Church. 2 
Innocent IV. (d. 1254) speaks of heretical commands of the Pope, which 
need not be obeyed. When Boniface VIII. (d. 1303) declared that 
every creature must obey the Pope at the loss of eternal salvation, he 
was charged with having a devil, because he presumed to be infallible, 



Vatican decree, in ch. iii., by omitting the principal part, makes him say almost the very 
opposite. 

1 Decret. Gratian. Dist. xl. c. 6, in conformity with the sentence of Hadrian II.: 'Cunctos 
ipsos judicaturus \_Papd], a nemine est judicandus, nisi deprehendatur a fide deyius.' 
See on this point especially von Schulte, Concilien, pp. 188 sqq. 

2 Ser-m. II de consecrat. Pontificis : ''In tantum mihi fides necessaria est, cum de ccEteris 
peccatis Deum judicem habeam, ut propter solum peccatum quod infidem committitur, possvn 
ab Ecclesia judieari.' 



96 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



which was impossible without witchcraft. Even Hadrian VI., in the 
sixteenth century, expressed the view, which he did not recant as Pope, 
that ' if by the Roman Church is understood its head, the Pope, it is 
certain that he can err even in matters of faith.' 

This old Catholic theory of the fallibility of the Pope is abundantly 
borne out by actual facts, which have been established again and again 
by Catholic scholars of the highest authority for learning and candor. 
We need no better proofs than those furnished by them. 

Zephyrinus (201-219) and Callistus (219-223) held and taught (ac- 
cording to the ' Fhilosophumena' of Hippolytus, a martyr and saint) 
the Patripassian heresy, that God the Father became incarnate and 
suffered with the Son. • 

Pope Liberius, in 358, subscribed an Arian creed for the purpose of 
regaining his episcopate, and condemned Athanasius, ' the father of or- 
thodoxy,' who mentions the fact with indignation. 

During the same period, his rival, Felix II., was a decided Arian ; but 
there is a dispute about his legitimacy; some regarding him as an anti- 
Pope, although he has a place in the. Romish Calendar of Saints, and 
Gregory XIII. (1582) confirmed his claim to sanctity, against which 
Baronius protested. 

In the Pelagian controversy, Pope Zosimus at first indorsed the or-' 
thodoxy of Pelagius and Celestius, whom his predecessor, Innocent I., 
had condemned ; but he yielded afterwards to the firm protest of St. 
Augustine and the African Bishops. 

In the Three-Chapter controversy, Pope Yigilius (538-555) showed a 
contemptible vacillation between two opinions: first indorsing; then, a 
year afterwards, condemning (in obedience to the Emperor's wishes) the 
Three Chapters (i. e., the writings of Theodore, Theodoret, and Ibas) ; 
then refusing the condemnation ; then, tired of exile, submitting to the 
fifth oecumenical Council (553), which had broken off communion with 
him ; and confessing that he had unfortunately been the tool of Satan, 
who labors for the destruction of the Church. A long schism in the 
West was the consequence. Pope Pelagius II. (585) significantly ex- 
cused this weakness by the inconsistency of St. Peter at Antioch. 

John XXII. (d. 1334) maintained, in opposition to Nicholas III. and 
Clement V. (d. 1314), that the Apostles did not live in perfect pov- 
erty, and branded the opposite doctrine of his predecessors as heretical 



HISTORY Or THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



97 



and dangerous. He also held an opinion concerning the middle state 
of the righteous, which was condemned as heresy by .the University of 
Paris. 

Contradictory opinions were taught by different Popes on the sacra- 
ments, on the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary (see p. 123), 
on matrimony, and on the subjection of the temporal power to the 
Church. 1 

But the most notorious case of an undeniably official indorsement of 
heresy by a Pope is that of Honorius I. (625-638), which alone is suffi- 
cient to disprove Papal Infallibility, according to the maxim : Falsus 
m uno, falsus in omnibus. 2 This case has been sifted to the very bot- 
tom before and during the Council, especially by Bishop Hefele and 
Pere Gratry. The following decisive facts are established by the best 
documentary evidence : 

(1.) Honorius taught ex cathedra (in two letters to his heretical col- 
league, Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople) the Monothelite heresy, 
which was condemned by the sixth oecumenical Council, i. e., the doc- 
trine that Christ had only one will, and not two (corresponding to his 
two natures). 3 

(2.) An oecumenical Council, universally acknowledged in the East 
and in the West, held in Constantinople, 680, condemned and excom- 

1 See examples under this head in Janus, pp. 51 sqq. (Irrthiimer und Wider spruche der 
.Papste), p. 51 of the London ed. 

2 Or, as Perrone, himself an Infallibilist, who in his Dogmatic Theology characteristically 
treats of the Pope before the Holy Scriptures and tradition, puts it : ' Si vel unicus ejusmodi 
error deprehenderetur, appareret omnes adductas probationes in nihilum redactum iri.' 

3 Honorius prescribed the technical term of the Monothelites as a dogma to the Church 
(dogma eeclesiasticum). In a reply to the Monothelite Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople, 
which is still extant in Greek and Latin (Mansi, Coll. Concil. Tom. XL pp. 538 sqq.), he ap- 
proves of his heretical view, and says as clearly as words can make it : ' Therefore we confess 
also one will (ev SrsXnpa) of our Lord Jesus Christ, since the Godhead has assumed our nature, 
but not our guilt.' In a second letter to Sergius, of which we have two fragments (Mansi, 
1. c. p. 579), Honorius rejects the orthodox term two energies (cvo iv'tpyuai, duoz operationes), 
which is used alongside with two wills (Suo BeXijpara. voluntates). Christ, he reasons, as- 
sumed human nature as it was before the fall, when it had not a law in the members which 
resists the law of the Spirit. He knew only a sinful human will. The Catholic Church re- 
jects Monothelitism, or the doctrine of one will of Christ, as involving or necessarily leading 
to Monophysitis m, i. e. , the doctrine that Christ had but one nature : for will is an attribute 
of nature, not of the person. The Godhead has three persons, but only one nature, and onlv 
one will. Christ has two wills, because he has two natures. The compromise formula of Em- 
peror Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople endeavored to reconcile the Mano- 
physites with the orthodox Church by teaching that Christ had two natures, but only one 
will and one energy. 

G 



98 



HISTORY OE THE VATICAN COUNCIL, 



municated Honorius, c the former Pope of Old Rome,' as a heretic, who 
with the help of the old serpent had scattered deadly error. 1 The sev- 
enth oecumenical Council (787) and the eighth (869) repeated the anath- 
ema of the sixth. 

(3.) The succeeding Popes down to the eleventh century, in a solemn 
oath at their accession, indorsed the sixth oecumenical Council, and pro- 
nounced 'an eternal anathema' on the authors of the Monothelite her- 
esy, together with Pope Honorius, because he had given aid and com- 
fort to the perverse doctrines of the heretics. 2 The Popes themselves, 
therefore, for more than three centuries, publicly recognized, first, that 
an oecumenical Council may condemn a Pope for open heresy, and, 
secondly, that Pope Honorius was justly condemned for heresy. Pope 
Leo II., in a letter to the Emperor, strongly confirmed the decree of the 
Council, and denounced his predecessor Honorius as one who 'endeav- 
ored by profane treason to overthrow the immaculate faith of the Ro- 
man Church.' 3 The same Pope says, in a letter to the Spanish Bishops : 
' With eternal damnation have been punished Theodore, Cyrus, Ser- 
gius — together with Honorius, who did not extinguish at the very be- 
ginning the flame of heretical doctrine, as was becoming to his apostolic 
authority, but nursed it by his carelessness.' 4 

This case of Honorius is as clear and strong as any fact in Church 
history. 5 Infallibilists have been driven to desperate efforts. Some 
pronounce the acts of the Council, which exist in Greek and Latin, 
downright forgeries (Baronius) ; others, admitting the acts, declare the 



1 Sessio XVI. : ''Sergio hceretico anathema, Gyro* hceretico anathema, Honorio hceretico 
anathema. 1 . . . Sessio XVIII. : 'Honorius, qui fuit Papa antiquai Romoz . . . non vaca- 
vit . . . Ecclesioz erroris scandalum suscitare unius voluntatis, et unius operationis in duabus 
naturis unius Christi,' etc. See Mansi, Cone. Tom. XI. pp. 622, 635, 655, 666. 

2 l Quia pravis hoereticorum assertionibus /omentum impendit. 1 This Papal oath was proba- 
bly prescribed by Gregory II. (at the beginning of the eighth century), and is found in the 
Liber Diurnus (the book of formularies of the Roman chancery from the fifth to the eleventh 
century), edited by Eugene de Roziere, Paris, 1869, No. 84. The Liber Pontificalis agrees 
with the Liber Diurnus. Editions of the Roman Breviary down to the sixteenth century re- 
iterated the charge against Honorius, since silently dropped. 

3 L Nec non et Honorium [anathematizamus], qui hanc apostolicam ecclesiam non apostolical 
traditionis doctrina lustravit, sed prof ana proditione immaculatam fidem subvertere conatus 
est: Mansi, Tom. XL p. 731. 

4 'Cum Honorio, qui flammam hozretici dogmatis, non ut decuit apostolicam auctoritatem, 
incipientem extinxit, sed negligendo confovit.'' Mansi. p. 1052. 

5 Comp. especially the tract of Bishop Hefele, above quoted. The learned author of the 
History of the Councils has proved the case as conclusively as a mathematical demonstration. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



99 



letters of Honorius forgeries, so that he was unjustly condemned by the 
Council (Bellarmin) — both without a shadow of proof; still others, being 
forced at last to acknowledge the genuineness of the letters and acts, 
distort the former into an orthodox sense by a non-natural exegesis, and 
thus unwillingly fasten upon oecumenical Councils and Popes the charge 
of either dogmatic ignorance and stupidity, or malignant representa- 
tion. 1 Yet in every case the decisive fact remains that both Councils 
and Popes for several hundred years believed in the fallibility of the 
Pope, in flat contradiction to the Vatican Council. Such acts of vio- 
lence upon history remind one of King James's short method with 
Dissenters : ' Only hang them, that's all.' 

5. The idea of Papal absolutism and Infallibility, like that of the 
sinlessness of Mary, can be traced to apocryphal origin. It is found 
first, in the second century, in the pseudo-Clementine Homilies, which 
contain a singular system of speculative Ebionism, and represent James 
of Jerusalem, the brother of the Lord, as the Bishop of Bishops, the 
centre of Christendom, and the general Vicar of Christ ; he is the last 
arbiter, from whom there is no appeal ; to him even Peter must give 
an account of his labors, and to him the sermons of Peter were sent 
for safe keeping. 2 

In the Catholic Church the same idea, but transferred to the Bishop 
of Rome, is first clearly expressed in the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, 
that huge forgery of Papal letters, which appeared in the middle of the 
ninth century, and had for its object the completion of the independ- 
ence of the Episcopal hierarchy from the State, and the absolute power 
of the Popes, as the legislators and judges of all Christendom. Here 
the most extravagant claims are put into the mouths of the early Popes, 
from Clement (91) to Damasus (384), in the barbarous French Latin of 
the Middle Ages, and with such numerous and glaring anachronisms as 
to force the conviction of fraud even upon Roman Catholic scholars. 



1 So Perrone, in his Dogmatics, and Pennachi, in his Liber de Honorii I. Rom. Pont, causa, 
1870, which is effectually disposed of by Hefele in an Appendix to the German edition of his 
tract. Nevertheless, Archbishop Manning, sublimely ignoring all but Infallibilist authorities 
on Honorius, has the face to assert (III. p. 223) that the case of Honorius is doubtful ; that he 
defined no doctrine whatever ; and that his two epistles are entirely orthodox ! Is Manning 
more infallible than the infallible Pope Leo II., who denounced Honorius ex cathedra as 
a heretic? 

2 £ee my Church History, ~Vo\. I. § 69, p. 219, and the tract of Lutterbeck above quoted. 



100 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



One of these sayings is : £ The Roman Church remains to the end free 
from stain of heresy.' Soon afterwards arose, in the same hierarchical 
interest, the legend of the donation of Constantine and his baptism by 
Pope Silvester, interpolations of the writings of the Fathers, especially 
Cyprian and Augustine, and a variety of fictions embodied in the Gesta 
Liberii and the Liber Poniificalis, and sanctioned by Gratianus (about 
1150) in his Decretum, or collection of canons, which (as the first part 
of the Corpus juris canonici) became the code of laws for the whole 
Western Church, and exerted an extraordinary influence. By this 
series of pious frauds the mediaeval Papacy, which was the growth of 
ages, was represented to the faith of the Church as a primitive institu- 
tion of Christ, clothed with absolute and perpetual authority. 

The Popes since Nicholas I. (858-867), who exceeded all his prede- 
cessors in the boldness of his designs, freely used what the spirit of a 
hierarchical, superstitious, and uncritical age furnished them. They 
quoted the fictitious letters of their predecessors as genuine, the Sardican 
canon on appeals as a canon of Nicsea, and the interpolated sixth canon 
of Nicsea, ' the Roman Church always had the primacy,' of which there 
is not a syllable in the original; and nobody doubted them. Papal 
absolutism was in full vigor from Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. 
Scholastic 'divines, even Thomas Aquinas, deceived by -these literary 
forgeries, began to defend Papal absolutism over the w T hole Church, 
and the Councils of Lyons (1274) and of Florence (1439) sanctioned it, 
although the Greeks soon afterwards rejected the false union based 
upon such assumption. 

But absolute power, especially of a spiritual kind, is invariably intox- 
icating and demoralizing to any mortal man who possesses it. God 
Almighty alone can bear it, and even he allows freedom to his rational 
creatures. The reminiscence of the monstrous period when the Papacy 
was a football in the hands of bold and dissolute women (904-962), or 
when mere boys, like Benedict IX. (1033), polluted the Papal crown 
with the filth of unnatural vices, could not be quite forgotten. The 
scandal of the Papal schism (1378 to 1409), when two and even three 
rival Popes excommunicated and cursed each other, and laid all West- 
ern Christendom under the ban, excited the moral indignation of all 
good men in Christendom, and called forth, in the beginning of the 
fifteenth century, the three Councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, 



• HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 101 

which loudly demanded a reformation of the Church, in the head as 
well as in the members, and asserted the superiority of a Council over 
the Pope. 

The Council of Constance (1414-1418), the most numerous ever seen 
in the "West, deposed two Popes — John XXIII. (the infamous Balthasar 
Cossa, who had been recognized by the majority of the Church), on the 
charge of a series of crimes (May 29, 1415), and Benedict XIII., as a 
heretic who sinned against the unity of the Church (July 26, 1417), 1 
and elected a new Pope, Martin V. (Nov. 11, 1517), who had given his 
adhesion to the Council, though after his accession to power he found 
ways and means to defeat its real object, i. e., the reformation of the 
Church. 

This Council was a complete triumph of the Episcopal system, and 
the Papal absolutists and Infallibilists are here forced to the logical di- 
lemma of either admitting the validity of the Council, or invalidating 
the election of Martin Y. and his successors. Either course is fatal to 
their system. Hence there has never been an authoritative decision 
on the cecumenicity of this Council, and the only subterfuge is to say 
that the whole case is an extraordinary exception ; but this, after all, 
involves the admission that there is a higher power in the Church over 
the Papacy. 

The Keformation shook the whole Papacy to its foundation, but 
could not overthrow it. A powerful reaction followed, headed by the 
Jesuits. Their General, Lainez, strongly advocated Papal Infallibility 
in the Council of Trent, and declared that the Church could not err 
only because the Pope could not err. But the Council left the question 
undecided, and the Roman. Catechism ascribes infallibility simply to 
' the Catholic Church,' without denning its seat.' Bellarmin advocated 
and formularized the doctrine, stating it as an almost general opinion 
that the Pope could not publicly teach a heretical dogma, and as a 
probable and pious opinion that Providence will guard him even 
against private heresy. Yet the same Bellarmin was witness to the 
innumerable blunders of the edition of the Latin Yulgate prepared by 
Sixtus Y, corrected by his own hand, and issued by him^as the only true 
and authentic text of the sacred Scriptures, with the stereotyped forms . 



1 The third anti-Pope, Gregory XII., resigned. 



102 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



of anathema upon all who should venture to change a single word ; 
and Bellarmin himself gave the advice that all copies should be called 
in, and a new edition printed with a lying statement in the preface 
making the printers the scape-goats for the errors of the Pope ! This 
whole business of the Yulgate is sufficient to explode Papal Infallibil- 
ity ; for it touches the very source of divine revelation. Other Italian 
divines, like Alphonsus Liguori, and Jesuitical text-books, unblushingly 
use long-exploded mediaeval fictions and interpolations as a groundwork 
of Papal absolutism and Infallibility. 

It is not necessary to follow the progress of the controversy between 
the Episcopal and the Papal systems during the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. It is sufficient to say that the greatest Catholic 
divines of France and Germany, including Bossuet and Mohler, togeth- 
er with many from other countries, down to the 88 protesting Bishops 
in the Yatican Council, were anti-Inf allibilists ; and that popular Cate- 
chisms of the Roman Church, extensively used till 1870, expressly de- 
nied the doctrine, which is now set up as an article of faith necessary 
to eternal salvation. 1 

Papal Infallibility and the Bible. 

The Old Testament gives no tangible aid to the Inf allibilists. The 
Jewish Church existed as a divine institution, and served all its pur- 
poses, from Abraham to John the Baptist, without an infallible tribu- 
nal in Jerusalem, save the written law and testimony, made effective 
from time to time by the living voice of inspired prophecy. Pious Israel- 
ites found in the Scriptures the way of life, notwithstanding the con- 
tradictory interpretations of rabbinical schools and carnal perversions 
of Messianic prophecies, fostered by a corrupt hierarchy. The Urim 



1 So Ovevberg's Katechismus, III. Hauptstiick, Fr. 349: ' Miissen icir auck'glauben, dass 
derPapst unfehlbar ist? Nein, dies ist keix Glauben'Sartikel.' Keenan's Controversial 
Catechism, in the editions before 1871, declared Papal Infallibility to be 'a Protestant in- 
vention.' The Irish Bishops — Doyle, Murray, Kelly — affirmed under oath, before a Com- 
mittee of the English Parliament in 1825, that the Papal authority is limited by Councils, 
that it does not extend to civil affairs and the temporal rights of princes, and that Papal de- 
crees are not binding on Catholics without the consent of the whole Church, either dispersed 
or assembled in Council. See the original in the Appendix to Archbishop Kenrick's Con- 
cio in Priedrich's Documenta, I. pp. 228-242. But the Irish Catholics, who almost believe 
in the infallibility of their priests, can be very easily taught to believe in the infallibility of the 
Pope. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



103 



and Thummim 1 of the High-Priest has no doubt symbolical reference 
to some kind of spiritual illumination or oracular consultation, but it 
is of too uncertain interpretation to furnish an argument. 

The passages of the New Testament which are used by Roman di- 
vines in support of the doctrine of Infallibility may be divided into 
two classes : those which seem to favor the Episcopal or Gallican, and 
those which are made to prove the Papal or Ultramontane theory. It 
is characteristic that the Papal Infallibilists carefully avoid the former. 

1. To the first class belong John xiv. 16 sq. ; xvi. 13-16, where Christ 
promises the Holy Ghost to his disciples that he may ' abide with them 
forever,' teach them 'all things/ bring to their remembrance all he 
had said to them, 2 and guide them £ into the whole truth 3 John xx. 
21 : '*As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. . . . Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost;' 4 Matt, xviii. 18: 'Whatever ye shall bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven,' etc. ; Matt, xxvfii. 19, 20 : ' Go and disciple 
all nations . . . and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world.' 

These passages, which are addressed to all Apostles alike, to doubt- 
ing Thomas as well as to Peter, prove indeed the unbroken presence of 
Christ and the Holy Ghost in the Church to the end of time, which is one 
of the most precious and glorious truths admitted by every true Chris- 
tian. But, in the first place, the Church, which is here represented by 
the Apostles, embraces all true believers, laymen as well as Bishops. 



1 That is, SfjXoxnQ koI aXrjSsia, doctrina et veritas,~Exod. xxviii. 15-30 ; Deut. xxxiii. 8, 9 ; 
1 Sam. xxviii. 6. The Urim and Thummim were inscrihed on the garment of Aaron. Some 
interpreters identify them with the twelve stones on which the names of the tribes of Israel 
were engraved ; others regard them as a plate of gold with the cacred name of Jehovah ; 
still others as polished diamonds, in form like dice, which, being thrown on the table or Ark 
of the Covenant, were consulted as an oracle. See the able article of Plumptre, in Smith's 
Bible Dictionary, Vol. IV. pp. 3356 sqq. (Am. ed.). 

2 The iravTa implies a strong argument for the completeness of Christ's revelation in the 
New Testament against the Romish doctrine of addition. 

3 The phrase e(g rfjv aXiftsiav iraaav (John xvi. 13), or, according to another reading, iv 
ry a\r)Stla iraay (test. rec. tig -Kaaav rrjv aXrjSreiav), expresses the truth as taught by Christ 
in its completeness — the ivhole truth — and proves likewise the sufficiency of the Scriptures. 
The A. V. and its predecessors (' into all truth'), also Luther (in alle Wdhrheit, instead of 
die ganze or voile Wahrheit), miss the true sense by omitting the article, and conveying the 
false idea that the Holy Ghost would impart to all the apostles a kind of omniscience. Comp. 
my annotations to Lange's John on the passages (pp. 415, 478, etc.). 

* Literally : ' Receive Holy Spirit' — Xdfiers rnnvfia ayiov. The absence of the article may 
indicate a partial or preparatory inspiration as distinct from the full Pentecostal effusion. 



104: 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Secondly, the promise of Christ's presence implies no infallibility, for 
the same promise is given even to the smallest number of true believ- 
ers (Matt, xviii. 20). Thirdly, if the passages prove infallibility at all, 
they would prove individual infallibility by continued inspiration rather 
than corporate infallibility by official succession; for every Apostle 
was inspired, and so far infallible; and this no Roman Catholic Bishop, 
though claiming to be a successor of the Apostles, pretends to be. 

2. The passages quoted by the advocates of the Papal theory are 
three, viz., Luke xxii. 31 ; Matt. xvi. 18 ; John xxi. 15. 1 

We admit, at the outset, that these passages in their obvious meaning, 
which is confirmed by the history of the Apostolic Church, assign to 
Peter a certain primacy among the Apostles : he was the leader and 
spokesman of them, and the chief agent of Christ in laying the foun- 
dations of his Church among the Jews and the Gentiles. This is signifi- 
cantly prophesied in the new name of Peter given to him. The his- 
tory of Pentecost (Acts ii.) and the conversion of Cornelius (Acts x.) 
are the fulfillment of this prophecy, and furnish the key to the inter- 
pretation of the passages in the Gospels. 

This is the truth which underlies the colossal lie of the Papacy. For 
there is no Eomish error which does not derive its life and force from 
some truth. 2 But beyond this we have no right to go. The position 
which Peter occupied no one can occupy after him. The foundation 
of the Church, once laid, is laid for all time to come, and the gates of 
Hades can not prevail against it. The New Testament is its own best 
interpreter. It shows no single example of an exercise of jurisdiction 
of Peter over the other Apostles, but the very reverse. He himself, in 
his Epistles, disowns and prophetically warns his 'fellow-presbyters 
against the hierarchical spirit ; exhorting them, instead of being lords 
over God's heritage, to be ensamples to his flock (1 Pet. v. 1-4). Paul 
and John were perfectly independent of him, as the Acts and Epistles 
prove. Paul even openly administered to him a rebuke at Antioch. 3 



1 Perrone and the Vatican decree on Infallibility confine themselves to these passages. 

2 Augustine says somewhere: ''Nulla falsa doctrina est, quce non aliquid veri permi- 
sceat.' 

3 This fact is so obnoxious to Papists that some of them doubt or deny that the Cephas 
of Galatians ii. 11 was the Apostle Peter, although the New Testament knows no other. So 
Perrone, who also asserts, from his own preconceived theory, not from the text, that Paul 
withstood Peter from respectful love as an inferior to a superior, but not as a superior to an 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



105 



At the Council of Jerusalem James seems to have presided, at all 
events he proposed the compromise which was adopted by the Apos- 
tles, Elders, and Brethren ; Peter was indeed one of the leading .speakers, 
. but he significantly advocated the truly evangelical principle of salva- 
tion by faith alone, and protested against human bondage (Acts xv. ; 
comp. Gal. ii.). 

The great error of the Papacy is that it perverts a primacy of honor 
into a supremacy of jurisdiction, a personal privilege into an official 
prerogative, and a priority of time into a permanent superiority of 
rank. And to make the above passages at all available for such pur- 
pose, it must take for granted, as intervening links of the argument, 
that which can not be proved from the New Testament nor from his- 
tory, viz., that Peter was Bishop of Rome ; that he was there as Paul's 
superior ; that he appointed a successor, and transferred to him his pre- 
rogatives. 

As to the passages separately considered, Matt, xvi., 6 Thou art rock,' 
and John xxi., ' Feed my flock,' could at best only prove Papal abso- 
lutism, but not Papal Infallibility, of which they do not treat. 1 The 
former teaches the indestructibility of the Church in its totality (not of 
any individual congregation), but this is a different idea. The Council 
of Trent lays down ( the unanimous consent of the Fathers' as the norm 
and rule of all orthodox interpretation, as if exegetical wisdom had 
begun and ended with the divines of the first six centuries. But of 
the passage Matt, xvi., which is more frequently quoted by Popes and 
Papists than any other passage in the Bible, there are no less than five 
different patristic interpretations ; the rock on which Christ built his 
Church being referred to Christ by sixteen Fathers (including Augus- 
tine) ; to the faith or confession of Peter by forty-four (including 
Chrysostom, Ambrose, Hilary, Jerome, and Augustine again) ; to Peter 
professing the faith by seventeen ; to all the Apostles, whom Peter 
represented by his primacy, by eight ; to all the faithful, who, believ- 
ing in Christ as the Son of God, are constituted the living stones of the 

inferior ! Let any Bishop try the same experiment against the Pope, and he will soon be 
sent to perdition. 

1 For a full discussion of Usrpog and 7rsrpa, see my edition of Lange's Comm. on Matt. xvi. 
18, pp. 203 sqq. ; and on the Romish perversion of the jSodiceiv and Troi}xaiveiv rd dpv'r., 
Trpofiara and 7rpo/3drta into a Karatcvpuvsiv, and even withdrawal of nourishment, see my ed. 
of Lange on John, pp. 638 sqq. 



106 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Church. 1 But not one of the Fathers finds Papal Infallibility in this 
passage, nor in John xxi. The 'unanimous consent of the Fathers' 
is a pure fiction, except in the most general and fundamental prin- 
ciples held by all Christians; and not to interpret the Bible except 
according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers, would strictly 
mean not to interpret it at all. 2 

There remains, then, only the passage recorded by Luke (xxii. 31, 32) 
as at all bearing on the disputed question : 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan 
desired to have you (or, obtained you by asking), that he may sift you 
as wheat ; but I prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not ; and thou, when 
once thou art converted (or, hast turned again), strengthen thy breth- 
ren.' But even this does not prove infallibility, and has not been so 
understood before Popes Leo I. and Agatho. For (1) the passage re- 
fers, as the context shows, to the peculiar personal history of Peter 
during the dark hour of passion, and is both a warning and a comfort 
to him. So it is explained by the Fathers, who frequently quote it. 
(2) Faith here, as nearly always in the Kew Testament, means personal 
trust in, and attachment to, Christ, and not, as the Romish Church mis- 
interprets it, orthodoxy, or intellectual assent to dogmas. (3) If the pas- 
sage refers to the Popes at all, it would prove too much for them, viz., 
that they, like Peter, denied the Saviour, were converted again, and 
strengthened their brethren — which may be true enough of some, but 
certainly not of all. 3 

The constant appeal of the Roman Church to Peter suggests a sig- 
nificant parallel. There is a spiritual Peter and a carnal Simon, who 

1 This patristic dissensus was brought out during the Council in the Questio distributed 
by Bishop Ketteler with all the proofs ; see Friedrich, Docum. I. pp. 6 sqq. Kenrick in his 
speech makes use of it. Comp. also my annotations to Lange's Comm. on Matthew in loco. 

2 Even Kenrick confesses that it is doubtful whether any instance of that unanimous con- 
sent can be found (in his Concio, seeFriedr. Docum.. I. p.195) : 1 Regula interpetrandi Scripturas 
nobis imposita, hoec est : eas contra unanimem Patrum consensum non interpetrari. Si un- 
quam detur consensus iste unanimis dubitari possit. Eo tamen dejiciente, regula is$a videtur 
nobis legem imponere majorem, qui ad unanimitatem accedere videretur, patrum numerum, in 
suis Scripturm inter pretationibus sequendi.' 

3 This logical inference is also noticed by Archbishop Kenrick (Concio, in Friedrich's 
Docum. I. p. 200) : l Praiterea singula verba in ista Christi ad Petrum allocutione de Petri 
successoribus intelligi nequeunt, quin aliquid maxime absurdi exinde sequi videretur. " Tu 
autem conversus," respiciunt certe conversionem Petri. Si priora verba ; " orari pro te," et 
posteriora: " conftrma fratres tuos," ad successores Petri cadestem vim, et munus transiisse 
probent, non videtur quarenam intermedia verba: "tu autem conversus," ad eos etiam pertinere, 
ct aliquali sensu de eis intelligi, non debeant.' 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 107 

are separated, indeed, by regeneration, yet, after all, not so completely 
that the old nature does not occasionally re-appear in the new man. 

It was the spiritual Peter who forsook all to follow Christ ; who first 
confessed him as the Son of God, and hence was called Kock ; who after 
his terrible fall wept bitterly; was re-instated and intrusted with the care 
of Christ's sheep ; who on the birthday of the Church preached the first 
missionary sermon, and gathered in the three thousand converts ; who 
in the Apostles' Council protested against the narrow bigotry of the 
Judaizers, and stood up with Paul for the principle of salvation by 
grace alone through faith in Christ; who, in his Epistles, warns all 
ministers against hierarchical pride, and exhibits a wonderful meek- 
ness, gentleness, and humility of spirit, showing that divine grace* had 
overruled and sanctified to him even his fall; and who followed at 
last his Master to the cross of martyrdom. 

It was the carnal Simon who presumed to divert his Lord from the 
path of suffering, and drew on him the rebuke, 6 Get thee behind me, 
Satan ; thou art a stumbling-block unto me, for thou mindest not the 
things of God, but the things of men ;' the Simon, who in mistaken zeal 
used the sword and cut off the ear of Malchus ; wiio proudly boasted 
of his unswerving fidelity to his Master, and yet a few hours afterwards 
denied him thrice before a servant- woman ; who even after the Pente- 
costal illumination was overcome by his natural weakness, and, from 
policy or fear of the Judaizing party, was untrue to his better convic- 
tion, so as to draw on him the public rebuke of the younger Apostle 
of the Gentiles. The Eomish legend of Domine quo vadis makes him 
relapse into his inconstancy even a day before his martyrdom, and* 
memorializes it in a chapel outside of Rome. 

The reader may judge whether the history of the Popes reflects more 
the character of the spiritual Peter or the carnal Simon. If the Apos- 
tolic Church prophetically anticipates and foreshadows the whole 
course of Christian history, the temporary collision of Peter, the Apos- 
tle of the circumcision, and Paul, the Apostle of the uncircumcision, 
at Antioch, is a significant type of the antagonism between Romanism 
and Protestantism, between the Church of the binding law and the 
Church of the free gospel. 



SYLLABUS EKRORUM. 

[The Papal Syllabus of Eerors. A.D. 1864.] 



[This document, though, issued hy the sole authority of Pope Pius IX., Dec. 8, 1864, must he regarded 
now as infallible and irreformahle, even without the formal sanction of the Vatican Council. It is 
purely negative, hut indirectly it teaches and eDjoins the very opposite of what it condemns as error.] 



Syllabus complectens prwcipuos 
nostrce cetatis Err ores qui notan- 
tur in Allocutionibus Consisto- 
rialibus, in Ehcyclicis, aliisque 
Apostolicis Letteris Sanctissimi 
Domini Xostri Pii Papas IX. 

§ I. — PANTHEISMUS, NATURALISMTTS 
ET RATIONALISMUS ABSOLTJTUS. 

1. Nullum supremum, sapien- 
tissimum, t promdentissimumque 
JVumen divinum exsistit ab hac 
rerum universitate distinctum, 
et Deus idem est ac rerum na- 
tura et iccirco immutationibus 
obnoxius, Deusque reapse Jit in 
homine et mundo, atque omnia 
Deus sunt et ipsissimam Dei 
habent substantiam ; ac una ea- 
demque res est Deus cum mun- 
do, et proinde spiritus mem ma- 
teria, neeessitas cum libertate, 
verum cum falso, bonum cum 
malo, et justum cum injusto. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

2. Neganda est omnis Dei ac- 
tio in homines et mundum. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1S62. 

3. Humana ratio, nullo pror- 



The Syllabus of the principal er- 
rors of our time, which are stig- 
matized in the Consistorial Al- 
locutions, Encyclicals, and other 
Apostolical Letters of our Most 
Holy Father, Pope Pius IX. 

§ I. — PANTHEISM, NATURALISM, AND 
ABSOLUTE RATIONALISM. 

1. There exists no supreme, most 
wise, and most provident divine 

! being distinct from the universe, 
j and God is none other than na- 
ture, and is therefore subject to 
| change. In effect, God is pro- 
J duced in man and in the world, 
and all things are God, and have 
the very substance of God. God 
is' therefore one and the same thing 
with the world, and thence spirit 
is the same thing with matter, ne- 
cessity with liberty, true with false, 
good with evil, justice with injus- 
tice. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1 862. 

2. All action of God upon man 
and the world is to be denied. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

3. Human reason, without any 



110 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



sus Dei respectu habito, unicus 
est veri et falsi, boni et niali 
arbiter, sibi ipsi est lex et natu- 
ralibus suis viribus ad hominum 
ac populorum bonum curandum 
sufficit. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

4. Omnes religionis veritates 
ex nativa humance rationis vi 
derivant ; hinc ratio est prin- 
cess norma, qua homo cognotio- 
nem omnium cujuscumque ge- 
neris veritatum assequi possit 
ac debeat. 

Epifet. encycl. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1846. 

Epist. encycl. Singulari quidem 17 martii 
1856. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

5. Divina revelatio est imper- 
fecta et iccirco subjecta conti- 
nuo et indefinito progressui, qui 
human® rationis progressions re- 
spondeat. 

Epist. encycl. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1846. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

6. Christi fides humane refra- 
gatur rationi ; divinaque reve- 
latio non solum nihil prodest, 
verum etiam nocet hominis per- 
fectioni: 

Epist. encycl. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1846. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

7. Prophetic et miracula in 



regard to God, is the sole arbiter of 
truth and falsehood, of good and 
evil-; it is its own law to itself, and 
suffices by its natural force to se- 
cure the welfare of men and of 
nations. 

Allocution Maxhna quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

4. All the truths of religion are 
derived from the native strength 
of human reason; whence reason 
is the master rule by which man 
can and ought to arrive at the 
knowledge of all truths of every 
kind. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th No- 
vember, 1846. 

Encyclical Letters, Singulari quidem, 17th 
March, 1856. 

Allocution Maxima-quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

5. Divine revelation is imperfect, 
and, therefore, subject to a contin- 
ual and indefinite progress, which 
corresponds with the progress of 
human reason. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th No- 
vember, 1846. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

6. Christian faith contradicts 
human reason, and divine revela- 
tion not only does not benefit, but 
even injures the perfection of 
man. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th No- 
vember, 1846. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June,1862. 

7. The prophecies and miracles 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



Sacris Litteris exposita et narra- 
ta sunt poetarum commenta, et 
Christians ficlei mysteria philo- 
sophicarum investigationum sum- 
ma ; et utriusque Testamenti 
libris mythica continentur in- 
vented ; ipseque Jesus Christus 
est mythica fictio. 

Epist. encyel. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1846. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

II. — EATIONALISMUS MODEEATUS. 

8. Quum ratio humana ipsi 
religioni cequiparetur, iccirco the- 
ologies discipline perinde ac phi- 
losophical tractands sunt. 

Alloc. Singulari quadam perfusi 9 de- 
cembris 1854. 

9. Omnia indiscriminatim do- 
gmata religionis Christians sunt 
objectum naturalis scientice seu 
philosophic ; et humana ratio 
historice tantum exculta potest 
ex suis naturalibus viribus et 
principiis ad veram de omnibus 
etiam reconditioribus dogmatibus 
scientiam pervenire, modo hcec 
dogmata ipsi rationi tamquam 
objectum proposita fuerint. 

Epist. ad Archiep. I rising. Gravissimas 
11 decembris 1862. 

Epist. ad eumdem Tuas libenter 21 de- 
cembris 1863. 

10. Quum aliud sit philoso- 
phus, aliud philosophia, ille jus 



111 

set forth and narrated in the Sa- 
cred Scriptures are the fictions of po- 
ets ; and the mysteries of the Chris- 
tian faith are the result of philo- 
sophical investigations. In the books 
of both Testaments there are contain- 
ed mythical inventions, and Jesus 
Christ is himself a mythical fiction. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th No- 
vember, 1 846. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

§ II. — MODEEN EATIONALISM. 

8. As human reason is placed on • 
a level with religion, so theological 
matters must be treated in the same 
manner as philosophical ones. 

Allocution Singulari quadam perfusi, 9th 
December, 1854. 

9. All the dogmas of the Chris- 
tian religion are, without excep- 
tion, the object of scientific knowl- 
edge or philosophy, and human 
reason, instructed solely by his- 
tory, is able, by its own natural 
strength and principles, to arrive 
at the true knowledge of even 
the most abstruse dogmas : pro- 
vided such dogmas be proposed as 
subject-matter for human reason. 

Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Gravissimas, 
11th December, 1862. 

To the same, Tuas libenter, 21st Decem- 
ber, 1863. 

10. As the philosopher is one 
thing, and philosophy is another, so 



112 THE PAPAL SYLI 

et qfficium habet se submittendi 
auctoritati, quam veram ipse 
probaverit ; at philosophia ne- 
que potest, neque debet ulli sese 
submittere auctoritati. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Erising. Gravissimas 
11 decembris 1862. 

Epist. ad eumdem Tuas libenter 21 de- 
cembris 1863. 

11. Eeclesia non solum non 
debet in philosophiam unquam 
animadvertere, verum etiam de- 
bet ipsius philosophic tolerare 

•errores, eique relinquere ut ipsa 
se corrigat. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Erising. Gravissimas 
11 decembris 1862. 

12. Apostolim Sedis, Romana- 
rumque Congregationum decreta 
liberum scientioe, progression im- 
pediunt. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Erising. Tuas libenter 
21 decembris 1863. 

13. Methodus etpri?icipia, quibus 
antiqui Doctores scholastici Theo- 
logiam excoluerunt, temporum nos- 
trorum necessitatibus scientiarum- 
que progressui minime congruunt. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Erising. Tuas libenter 
21 decembris 1863. 

14. Philosophia tractanda est, 
nulla supernaturalis revelationis 
habita ratione. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Erising. Tuas libenter 
21 decembris 1863. 



ABUS OE EKROKS. 

it is the right and duty of the philos- 
opher to submit to the authority 
which he shall have recognized as 
true ; but philosophy neither can nor 
ought to submit to any authority. 

Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Gravissimas, 
11th December, 1862. 

To the same, Tuas libenter, 21st Decem- 
ber, 1863. 

11. The Church not only ought 
never to animadvert upon philoso- 
phy, but ought to tolerate the er- 
rors of philosophy, leaving to phi- 
losophy the care of their correc- 
tion. 

Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Gravissimas, 
11th December, 1862. 

12. The decrees of the Apostolic 
See and of the Koman Congrega- 
tions fetter the free progress of 
science. 

Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Tuas libenter, 
21st December, 1863. 

13. The method and principles 
by which the old scholastic doctors 
cultivated theology are no loDger 
suitable to the demands of the age 
and the progress of science. 

Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Tuas libenter, 1 
21st December, 1861 . 

14. Philosophy must be treated 
of without any account being taken 
of supernatural revelation. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Frising. Tuas libenter, 
21st December, 1863. 



N. B. — Cum rationalismi systemate coha- 



N. B. — To the rationalistic system belong, 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



113 



rent maximam partem errores Antonii Gun- 
ther, qui damnantur in Epist. ad Card. Ar- 
chiep. Coloniensem Eximiam tuam 15 junii 
1857, et in Epist. ad Episc. Wratislaviensem 
Dolore haud mediocri 30 aprilis 1860. 

§ III. INDIFFEKENTISMUS, LATITIT- 

DINARISMITS. 

15. Liberum cuique homini est 
earn amjglecti ac prqfiteri reli- 
qionem, quam rationis lumine 
quis ductus veram putaverit. 

Litt. Apost. Multiplices inter 10 junii 
1851. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862, 

16. Homines in cujusvis religio- 
nis cultu mam cetemce salutis re- 
perire ceternamque scdutem asse- 
qui possunt. 

Epist. encycl. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1846. 

Alloc. Ubi primum 17 decembris 1847. 

Epist. encycl. Singulari quidem 17 martii 
1856. 

17. Saltern bene sperandum est 
de ceterna illorum omnium salute, 
qui in vera Christi Ecclesia ne- 
quaquam versantur. 

Alloc. Singulari quadam 9 decembris 
1854. 

Epist. encycl. Qunnto conficiamur 17 au- 
gustii 1863. 

18. Protestantismus non aliud 

est quam diversa verce ejusdem 

Christiance religionis forma, in 

qua ceque ac in Ecclesia Ca- 
ll 



in great part, the errors of Anthony Giinther, 
condemned in the letter to the Cardinal Arch- 
bishop of Cologne, Eximiam tuam, June 15, 
1857, and in that to the Bishop of Breslau, 
Dolore haud mediocri, April 30, 1860. 

§ III. INDIFFEBENTI SM, LATITUDI- 

NAEIANISM. 

15. Every man is free to em- 
brace and profess the religion he 
shall believe true, guided by the 
light of reason. 

Apostolic Letter, Multiplices inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

16. Men may in any religion 
find the way of eternal salva- 
tion, and obtain eternal salva- 
tion. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th No- 
vember, 1846. 

Allocution Ubi primum, 17th December, 
1847. 

Encyclical Letters, Singulari quidem, 17th 
March, 1856. 

IT. We may entertain at least a 
well-founded hope for the eternal 
salvation of all those who are in 
no manner in the true Church of 
Christ. 

Allocution Singulari quadam, 9th Decem- 
ber, 1854. 

Encyclical Letters, Quanto conficiamur, 
17th August, 1863. 

18. Protestantism is nothing 
more than another form of the 
same true Christian religion, in 
which it is possible to be equally 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



114 

tholica Deo placere datum 
est. 

Epist. encycl. Noscitis et Nobiscum 8 de- 
cembris 1819. 

§ IV. — SOCIALISMUS, COMMUNISMUS, 
SOCIETATES CLANDESTINE, SOCIE- 
TATES BIBLICE, SOCIETATES CLE- 
RICO-LIBERALES. 

Ejusmodi pestes scepe gravis- 
simisque xerborum formidis re- 
probantur in Epist. encycl. Qui 
pluribus 9 novembr. 1846 ; in Al- 
loc. Quibus quantisque 20 april. 
1849 ; in Epist. encycl. 1ST oscitis et 
Nobiscum 8 dec. 1849 ; in Alloc. 
Singulari quadam 9 dec. 1854; in 
Epist. encycl. Quanto conficiamur 
moerore 10 august i 1863. 

§ Y. — ERRORES DE ECCLESIA EJUS- 
QUE JURIBUS. 

19. Ecclesia non est vera per- 
fectaque societas plane libera, 
nee pollet suis propriis et con- 
stantibus juribus sibi a divino 
suo fundatore collatis, sed civi- 
lis potestatis est definire guce 
sint Ecclesice jura ac limit es, 
intra guos eadem jura exercere 
gueat. 

Alloc. Singulari quadam 9 decernbris 
1854. 

Alloc. Multis gravibusque 17 decernbris 
1860. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

20. Ecclesiastica potestas suam 



pleasing to God as in the Catholic 
Church. 

Encyclical Letters, Noscitis et Nobiscum, 
8th December, 1819. 

§ IY. — SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM, SE- 
CRET SOCIETIES, BIBLICAL SOCIE- 
TIES, CLERICO-LIBERAL SOCIE- 
TIES. 

Pests of this description are fre- 
quently rebuked in the severest 
terms in the Encyc Qui pluri- 
bus, Nov. 9, 1846; Alloc. Quibus 
quantisque, April 20, 1849 ; En- 
cyc. Noscitis et Nobiscum, Dec. 
8, 1849 ; Alloc. Singulari qua- 
dam, Dec. 9, 1854; Encyc. Quan- 
to conficiamur moerore, Aug. 10, 
1863. 

§ Y. — ERRORS CONCERNING THE 
CHURCH AND HER RIGHTS. 

19. The Church is not a true, and 
perfect, and entirely free society, 
nor does she enjoy peculiar and per- 
petual rights conferred upon her by 
her Divine Founder, but it apper- 
tains to the civil power to define 
what are the rights and limits with 
which the Church may exercise au- 
thority. 

Allocution Singulari quadam, 9th Decem- 
ber, 1854. 

Allocution Multis gravibusque, 17th De- 
cember, 1860. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

I 20. The ecclesiastical power must 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



115 



auctoritatem exereere non debet 
absque civilis gubernii venia et 
assensu. 

Alloc. Meminit unusquisque 30 septembris 
• 1861. 

21. Ecclesia non habet potesta- 
tem dogmatice definiendi, religio- 
nem Caiholicce Ecclesioe esse unice 
veram religionem. 

Litt. Apost. MultipUces inter 10 junii 
1851. 

22. Obligation qua Catholici 
magistri et scriptores omnino ad- 
stringuntur, coarctatur in iis tan- 
tum, quce ab infallibili Ecclesim 
judicio veluti fidei dogmata ab 
omnibus credenda proponuntur. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Erising. Tuas libenier 
21 decembris 1863. 

23. Homani Pontifices et Con- 
cilia cecumenica a limitibus sum 
potestatis recesserunt, jura prin- 
cipum usurparunt, atque etiam 
in rebus fidei et mortem definien- 
dis errarunt. 

Litt. Apost. MultipUces inter 10 junii 
1851. 

24. Ecclesia vis infer endce pote- 
statem non habet, neque potesta- 
tem ullam temporalem directam 
vel indirectam. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

25. Prceter potestatem Episco- 
patui inhcerentem, alia est at- 
tributa temporalis potestas a ci- 



not exercise its authority without 
the permission and assent of the 
civil government. 

Allocution Meminit unusquisque, 30th Sep- 
tember, 1861. 

21. The Church has not the 
power of denning dogmatically 
that the religion of the Catholic 
Church is the only true religion. 

Apostolic Letter, MultipUces inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

22. The obligation which binds 
Catholic 'teachers and authors ap- 
plies only to those things which are 
proposed for universal belief as 
dogmas of the faith, by the infal- 
lible judgment of the Church. 

Letter ad Arcliiep. Frising. Tuas libznter, 
21st December, 1863. 

23. The Eoman Pontiffs and 
oecumenical Councils- have exceed- 
ed the limits of their power, have 
usurped the rights of princes, and 
have even committed errors in de- 
fining matters of faith and morals. 

Apostolic Letter, MultipUces inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

v 24. The Church has not the 
power of availing herself of force, 
or any direct or indirect temporal 
power. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851.. 

25. In addition to the authority 
inherent in the Episcopate, a fur- 
ther and temporal power is granted 



116 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



vili imperio vel expresse vel ta- 
cite concessa, revocanda p>rop>te- 
rea, cum libuerit, a civili im- 
perio. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

26. Ecclesia non lidbet natimim 
ac legitimism jus acquirendi ac 
possidendi. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 
Epist. encycl. Incredibili 17 septembris 
1863. 

27. Sacri Ecclesice ministri Bo 
manusque Pontifex ab omni re- 
rum temporalium cura ac domi- 
nio sunt omnino excludendi. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

28. Episcopis, sine gubernii 
ve?iia, fas non est vel ipsas 
apostolicas litteras promul- 

• gare. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 

29. Gratice a Bomano Ponti- 
fice concessce existimari debent 
tamquam irritce, nisi per guber- 
niumfuerint imploratce. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 

30. Ecclesice et personarum ec- 
clesiasticarum immunitas a jure 
civili ortum habuit. 

Litt. Apost. Multiplices inter 10 junii 
1851. 

31. Ecclesiasticum forum pro 
temporalibus clericorum causis 
sive civilibus sive criminalibus 
omnino de medio tollendum est 3 



to it by the civil authority, either 
expressly or tacitly, which power is 
on that account also revocableby the 
civil authority whenever it pleases. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

26. The Church has not the in- 
nate and legitimate right of acqui- 
sition and possession. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856. 
Encyclical Letters, Incredibili, 17th Sep- 
tember, 1863. 

27. The ministers of the Church, 
and the Eoman Pontiff, ought to be 
absolutely excluded from all charge 
and dominion over temporal affairs. ' 

Allocution Maxim a quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

28. Bishops have not the right of 
promulgating even their apostolical 
letters, without the permission of 
the government. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856. 

29. Dispensations granted by the 
Eoman Pontiff must be considered 
null, unless they have been asked 
for by the civil government. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856. 

30. The immunity of the Church 
and of ecclesiastical persons derives 
its origin from civil law. 

Apostolic Letter, Multiplices inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

31. Ecclesiastical courts for tem- 
poral causes, of the clergy, whether 
civil or criminal, ought by all means 
to be abolished, either without the 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OP ERRORS. 



etiam inconsulta et reclamante 
Apostolica Sede. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 
1852. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 
1856. 

32. Absque ulla naturalis juris 
et cequitatis molatione potest ab- 
rogari personalis immunitas, qua 
clerici ab onere subeundoe exercen- 
dceque militice eximuntur ; hanc 
vero abrogationem jpostulat civilis 
jprogressus maxime in societate 
ad formam liberioris regintinis 
constituta. 

Epist. ad Epistc. Montisregal. Singularis 
Nobisque 29 septembris 1864. 

33. Non jpertinet unice ad ec- 
clesiasticam jitrisdictionis ypote- 
statem jprojprio ac nativo jure 
dirigere theologicarum rerum 
doctrinam. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Frising. Tuas libenter 
21 decembris 1863. 

34. Doctrina comjparantium 
Pomanum Pontificem principi 
libero et agenti in universa Ec- 
clesia doctrina est quce medio cevo 
jprcevaluit. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

35. Nihil vetat, alicujus con- 
eilii generalis sententia aut uni- 
versorum pqpulorum facto, sum- 
mum Pontificatum ab Romano 
Episcopo atque Urbe ad alium 



117 

concurrence and against the pro- 
test of the Holy See. 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 
1852. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th December, 
1856. 

32. The personal immunity exon- 
erating the clergy from military 
service may be abolished, with- 
out violation either of natural 
right or of equity. Its abolition 
is called for by civil progress, 
especially in a community consti- 
tuted upon principles of liberal 
government. 

Letter to the Archbishop of Montreal, Sin- 
gularis nobisque, 29th September, 1861. 

33. It does not appertain exclu- 
sively to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 
by any right, proper and inherent, 
to direct the teaching of theological 
subjects. 

Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Tuas libenter, 
21st December, 1863 

34. The teaching of those who 
compare the sovereign Pontiff to a 
free sovereign acting in the univer- 
sal Church is a doctrine which pre- 
vailed in the middle ages. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

35. There would be no obstacle 
to the sentence of a general coun- 
cil, or the act of all the universal 
peoples, transferring the pontifical 
sovereignty from the Bishop and 



118 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



Episcopum aliamgue civitatem 
transferri. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augnsti 
1851. 

36. JVationalis consilii definitio 
nullam aliam admitiit disputa- 
tionem, civilisgue administrate 
rem ad ho see terminos exigere 
potest. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce. 22 augusti 
1851. 

37. Instiiui possunt nationdles 
Ecclesice gb auctoritate Roma- 
ni Poniificis suhductce planegue 
divisce. 

Alloc. Multis gravibusque 17 decembris 
1860. 

Alloc. Jamdudum cernimus 18 martii 
1861. 

38. Divisioni Ecclesice in ori- 
entalem atgue occidentalem nimia 
Romanorum Pontifieum arbitria 
contiderunt. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

§ VI. — EEEOEES DE SOCIETATE CIVI- 
LI TUM IN SE, TDM EST SDIS AD 
ECCLESIAM EELATIONIBUS SPEC- 
TATA. 

39. MeipubliccB status, utpote 
omnium jurium origo et fons, 
jure quodam pollet nullis circum- 
scripto limit ibus. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

40. Catholicce Ecclesia doctrina 



City of Eome to some other bish- 
opric and some other city. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

36. The definition of a national 
council does not admit of any sub- 
sequent discussion, and the civil pow- 
er can regard as settled an affair 
decided by such national council. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

37. Isational churches can be 
established, after being withdrawn 
and plainly separated from the au- 
thority of the Roman Pontiff. 

Allocutiou Multis gravibusque, 17th De- 
cember, 1860. 

Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, 18th 
March, 1861. 

38. Roman Pontiffs have, by their 
too arbitrary conduct, contributed 
to the division of the Church into 
eastern and western. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

§ VI. EEEOES ABOUT CIVIL SOCIE- 
TY, CONSIDEEED BOTH IN ITSELF 
AND LN ITS EELATION TO THE 
CHUECH. 

39. The commonwealth is the 
origin and source of all rights, and 
possesses rights which are not cir- 
cumscribed by any limits. 

AWocntionMaxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

40. The teaching of the Catholic 



I 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OP ERRORS. 



119 



humanoB societatis bono et commo- 
dis adversatur. 

Epist. encycl. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1846. 

Alloc. Quibus quantisque 20 aprilis 
1849. 

41. Civili potestati vel ab in- 
fideli imperante exercitce corn- 
petit potestas indirecta nega- 
tives in sacra; eidem proinde 
com/petit nedum jus quod vocant 
exequatur, sed etiam jus appel- 
lations, quam nuncupant, ab 
abusu. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
' 1851. 

42. Li conflictu legwn utrius- 
que potestatis jus civile prceva- 
let 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

43. Laica potestas auctorita- 
tem habet rescindendi, declarandi 
ac faciendi irritas solemnes con- 
ventiones {vidgo Concordata) su- 
per usu jurium ad ecclesiasti- 
cam immunitatem pertinentium 
cum, Sede Apostolica initas, sine 
hujus consensu, immo et ea re- 
clamante. 

Alloc. - In Consistoriali 1 novembris 1850. 
Alloc. Multis gravibusque 17 decembris 
1860. 

44. Civilis auctoritas potest se 
immiscere rebus quce ad religio- 
neni, mores et regimen spiritu- 



Church is opposed to the well-being 
and interests of society. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9tb No- 
vember, 1846. 

Allocution Quibus quantisque, 20tb April, 
1849.- 

41. The civil power, even when 
exercised by an unbelieving sover- 
eign, possesses an indirect and neg- 
ative power over religious affairs. 
It therefore possesses not only the 
right called that of exequatur, but 
that of the (so-called) appellatio 
ab abusu. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

42. In the case of conflicting 
laws between the two powers, the 
civil law ought to prevail. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

43. The civil power has a right 
to break, and to declare and ren- 
der null, the conventions (commonly 
called Concordats) concluded with 
the Apostolic See, relative to the 
use of rights appertaining to the 
ecclesiastical immunity, without 
the consent of the Holy See, and 
even contrary to its protest. 

Allocution In Consistoriali, 1st Nov., 1850. 
Allocution Multis gravibusque, 17th De- 
cember, 1860. 

44. The civil authority may in- 
terfere in matters relating to re- 
ligion, morality, and spiritual gov- 



120 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



ale pertinent. Hinc potest de 
instructionibus judicare, quas 
Ecclesioz pastores ad conscientia- 
rum normam pro sico munere 
edicnt, quin etiam potest de di- 
vinorum sacramentorum admi- 
nistrations et dispositionibus ad 
ea suscipienda necessariis decer- 
nere. 

Alloc. In Consistoriali 1 novembris 1850. 
Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

45. Totum scholarum publica- 
rum regimen, in quibus juventus 
Christians alicujus reipublicai 
instituitur, episcopalibus dum- 
taxat seminariis aliqua ratione 
exceptis, potest ac debet attribui 
auctoritati civili, et ita quidem 
attribui, ut nullam alii cuicum- 
que auctoritati recognoscatur jus 
immiscendi se in disciplina scJio- 
larum, in regimine studiorum, 
in graduum collatione, in dilectu 
aut app>robatione magistrorum. 

Alloc. In Consistoriali 1 novembris 1850. 
Alloc. Quibus luctuosissimis 5 septembris 
1851. 

46. Immo in ipsis clericorum 
seminariis methodus studiorum 
adhibenda civili auctoritati sub- 
jicitur. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 

47. Postulat optima civilis so- 
cietatis ratio, ut populares scholce, 
quce patent omnibus cujusque e 
populo classis pueris, ac publica 



eminent. Hence it lias control 
over the instructions for the guid- 
ance of consciences issued, conform- 
ably with their mission, by the pas- 
tors of the Church. Further, it pos- 
sesses power to decree, in the matter 
of administering the divine sacra- 
ments, as to the dispositions neces- 
sary for their reception. 

Allocution In Consistoriali, 1st Nov., 1850. 
Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

45. The entire direction of pub- 
lic schools, in which the youth of 
Christian states are educated, ex- 
cept (to a certain extent) in the case 
of episcopal seminaries, may and 
must appertain to the civil power, 
and belong to it so far that no other 
authority whatsoever shall be recog- 
nized as having any right to inter- 
fere in the discipline of the schools, 
the arrangement of the studies, the 
taking of degrees, or the choice and 
approval of the teachers. 

Allocution In Consistoriali, 1st Xov., 1850. 
Allocution Quibus luctuosissimis, 5th Sep- 
tember, 1851. 

46. Huch more, even in clerical 
seminaries, the method of study to 
be adopted is subject to the civil 
authority. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15 Dec, 1856. 

47. The best theory of civil so- 
ciety requires that popular schools 
open to the children of all classes, 
and, generally, all public institutes 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



121 



universim instituta, quce litteris 
severioribusque discijplinis traden- 
dis et educationi juventutis curan- 
dm sunt destinata, eximantur ah 
omni Ecclesicz auctoritate, modera- 
trice vi et ingerentia, plenoque ci- 
vilis ac political auctoritatis arbi- 
trio subjiciantur ad imperantium 
placita et ad communium cetatis 
opinionum amussim. 

Epist. ad ' Archiep. Eriburg. Quum non 
sine 14 julii 1864. 

48. Catliolicis viris probari 
potest ea juventutis instituendoe 
ratio, quce sit a Catholica fide 
et ah Ecclesice potestate sejuncta, 
quceque rerum dumtaxat natu- 
ralium scientiam ac terre?ice so- 
cialis vitce fines tantummo- 
do vel ■ saltern primario spec- 
tet. 

Epist. ad Archiep. Eriburg. Quum non 
sine 14 julii 1864. 

49. Civilis auctoritas potest 
impedire quominus sacrorum 
antistites et fideles populi cum 
Romano Pontifice libere ao mu- 
tuo communicent. 

'■ Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

50. Laica auctoritas habet per 
se jus prcesentandi episcopos 
et potest ah Hits exigere, ut 
ineant dioecesium procuratio- 
nem, antequam ipsi canoni- 
cam a S. Sede institutionem 



intended for instruction in letters 
and philosophy, and for conduct- 
ing the education of the young, 
should be freed from all ecclesias- 
tical authority, government, and in- 
terference, and should be fully sub- 
ject to the civil and political power, 
in conformity with the will of rulers 
and the prevalent opinions of the 
age. 

Letter to the Archbishop of Eribourg, 
Quum non sine, 14th July, 1864. 

48. This system of instructing 
youth, which consists in separating 
it from the Catholic faith and from 
the power of the Church, and in 
teaching exclusively, or at least pri- 
marily, the knowledge of natural 
things and the earthly ends of so- 
cial life alone, may be approved by 
Catholics. 

Letter to the Archbishop of Ei;ibourg, 
Quum non sine, 14th July, 1864. 

49. The civil power has the right 
to prevent ministers of religion, 
and the faithful, from communi- 
cating freely and mutually with 
each other, and with the Eoman 
Pontiff. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9 th Jane, 1862. 

50. The secular authority pos- 
sesses, as inherent in itself, the right 
of presenting bishops, and may re- 
quire of them that they take pos- 
session of their dioceses before 
having received canonical institu- 



1 

V 



122 THE PAPAL SYLL 

et apostolicas litteras accipi- 
ant. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 

51. Immo laicum gubemium 
habet jus deponendi ah exer- 
citio pastoralis ministerii epis- 
copos, neque tenetur obedire 
Romano Pontifici in Us quce 
episcopatuum et episcoporum re- 
spiciunt institiitionem. 

Litt. Apost. Midtiplices inter 10 jimii 
1851. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 

52. Gubemium potest suo jure 
immutare cetatem ah Ecclesia 
prcescripta?n pro religiosa tarn 
mulierum quam virorum pro- 
fessione, omnibusque religiosis 
familiis indicere, ut neminem 
sine suo permissu ad solemnia 
yota nuncupanda admittant. 

Allop. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 

53. Abroga7idce sunt leges quce 
ad religiosarum familiarum sta- 
tum tutandum, earumque jura 
et officia pertinent; immo po- 
test civile gubemium iis omni- 
bus auxilium prcestare, qui a 
suscepto religiosce mice instituto 
deficere ae solemnia vota f ran- 
ger e velint; pariterque potest 
religiosas easdem familias pe- 
rinde ac collegiatas Ecclesias, 
et beneficia simplicia etiam ju- 
ris patronatus penitus exiingue- 
■re, illorumque bona et reditus 



U3US OF ERRORS. 

tion and the apostolic .letters from 
the Holy See. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856. 

51. And, further, the secular gov- 
ernment has the right of deposing 
bishops from their pastoral func- 
tions, and it is not bound to obey 
the Koman Pontiff in those things 
which relate to episcopal sees and 
the institution of bishops. 

Apostolic Letter, Midtiplices inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1832. 

52. The government has of it- 
self the right to alter the age pre- 
scribed by the Church for the re- 
ligious profession, both of men and 
women; and it may enjoin upon 
all religious establishments to ad- 
mit no person to take solemn vows 
without its permission. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856. 

53. The laws for the protection 
of religious establishments, and 
securing their rights and duties, 
ought to be abolished : nay, more, 
the civil government may lend its 
assistance to all who desire to quit 
the religious life they have un- 
dertaken, and break their vows. 
The government may also sup- 
press religious orders, collegiate 
churches, and simple benefices, 
even those belonging to private 
patronage, and submit their goods 
and revenues to the adminis- 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



123 



civilis jootestatis administrationi 
et arbitrio suhjicere et vindicare. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 
Alloc. Probe memineritis 22 januarii 1855. 
Alloc. Cum scepe 26 julii 1855. 

54. Eeges et jprincipes non so- 
lum ah Ecclesice jurisdictione 
eximuntur, verum etiam in quce- 
stionibus jurisdictionis dirimen- 
dis superior es sunt Ecclesia. 

Litt. Apost. Multiplices inter 10 junii 
1851. 

55. Ecelesia a Statu, Status- 
que ah Ecelesia sejungendus 
est. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 

§ VII. ERRORE8 DE ETHICA NATU- 
RAL! ET CHRISTIANA. 

56. Morum leges divina haud 
egent sanctione, minimeque opus 
est ut huinance leges ad natures 
jus confirmentitr aut obligandi 
vim a Deo accijoiant. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

57. PJiilosojphicccrum rerum 
morurnque scientia, itemque ci- 
viles leges jpossunt et dehent a 
divina et ecclesiastica auctoritate 
declinare. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

58. Alice vires non sunt agno- 
scendce nisi illce quce in materia 
jpositce sunt, et omnis morum 
disciplina Jwnestasque collocari 



tration and disposal of the civil 
power. 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1852. 
Allocution Probe memineritis, 22d Jan., 1855, 
Allocution Cum soepe, 26th July, 1855. 

54. Kings and princes are not 
only exempt from the jurisdiction 
of the Church, but are superior to 
the Church, in litigated questions 
of jurisdiction. 

Apostolic Letter, Multiplices inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

55. The Church ought to be sep- 
arated from the State, and the State 
from the Church, x 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1852. 

§ VII. — ERRORS CONCERNING- NATU- 
RAL AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 

56. Moral laws do not stand in 
need of the divine sanction, and 
there is no necessity that human 
laws should be conformable to the 
law of nature, and receive their 
sanction from God. 

Allocution Maxi ma quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

57. Knowledge of philosophical 
things and morals, and also civil 
laws, may and must depart from 
divine and ecclesiastical author- 
ity' 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

58. No other forces are to be 
recognized than those which reside 
in matter ; and all moral teaching 
and moral excellence ouo;ht to be 



124 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



debet in ewnulandis et augen- 
dis quovis modo divitiis ac in 
voluptatibus exjolendis. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 18G2. 
Epist. encycl. Quanto conficiamur 10 au- 
gusti 1863. 

59. Jus in materiali facto con- 
sistit, et omnia hominum officia 
sunt nomen ina?ie, et omnia hu- 
mana facta juris mm habent. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

60. Auctoritas nihil aliud est 
nisi numeri et materialium viri- 
um summa. 

Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 junii 1862. 

61. Fortunata facti injustitia 
nullum juris sanctitati detrimen- 
turn affert. 

Alloc. Jamdudum cernimus 18 martii 
1861. 

62. Proclamandum est et ob- 
servandum jprincipiitm quod vo- 
cant de non-interventu. 

Alloc. Novos et ante 28 septembris 1860. 

63. Legitlmis jprincipibus obe- 
dientiam detrectare, immo et re- 
bellare licet. 

Epist. encycl. Qui pluribus 9 novembris 
1816. 

Alloc. Quisque vestrum 4 octobris 1847. 

Epist. encycl. Noscitis et Nobiscmn 8 de- 
cembris 1849. 

Litt. Apost. Cum catholica 26 martii 
1860. 

64. Turn cuj usque sanctissimi 



made to consist in the accumula- 
tion and increase of riches by every 
possible means, and in the enjoy- 
ment of pleasure. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 
Encyclical Letters, Quanto conficiamur, 
10th August, 1863. 

59. Eight consists in the mate- 
rial fact, and all human duties are 
but vain words, and all human acts 
have the force of right. 

Allocution Maxi ma quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

60. Authority is nothing else but 
the result of numerical superiority 
and material force. 

Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

61. An unjust act, being suc- 
cessful, inflicts no injury upon the 
sanctity of right. 

Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, 18th 
March, 1861. 

62. The principle ^"non-inter- 
vention^ as it is called, ought to be 
proclaimed and adhered to. 

Allocution Novos et ante, 28th Sept., 1860. 

63. It is allowable to refuse obe- 
dience to legitimate princes: nay, 
more, to rise in insurrection against 
them. 

Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th No- 
vember, 1846. 

Allocution Quisque vestrum, 4th Oct., 1847. 

Encyclical Letters, Noscitis et Nobiscum, 
8th December, 1849. 

Apostolic Letter, Cum catholica, 26th 
March, 1860. 

64. The violation of a solemn 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



125 



juramenti violatio, turn quceli- 
bet scelesta flagitiosaque actio 
sempitemce legi repugnans, non 
solum Tiaud est improbanda, ve- 
rum etiam omnino licita, sum- 
misque laudibus efferenda, quan- 
do id pro patriae amove agatur. 

Alloc. Quibus quantisque 20 aprilis 
1849. 

§ VIII. EEEOEES DE MATRIMONIO 

CHRISTIANO. 

65. Nulla ratione ferri potest, 
Christum evexisse matrimonium 
ad dignitatem sacramenti. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

66. Matrimonii sacramentum 
non est nisi quid contractui acces- 
sorium ab eoque separabile, ipsum- 
que sacramentum in una tantum 
nuptiali benedictione situm est. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

67. Jure natures matrimonii 
mnculum non est indissolubile 
et in variis casibus diwrtium 
proprie dictum auctoritate ci- 
vili sanciri potest. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 

68. Ecclesia non habet potesta- 
tem impedimenta matrimonium 
dirimentia inducendi, sed ea po- 
testas civili auctoritati competit, 



oath, even every wicked and fla- 
gitious action repugnant to the 
eternal law, is not only not blam- 
able, but quite lawful, and wor- 
thy of the highest praise, when 
done for the love of coun- 
try. 

Allocution Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 
1849. 

§ VIII. THE EEEOES CONCERNING 

CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE. 

65. It can not be by any means 
tolerated, to maintain that Christ 
has raised marriage to the dignity 
of a sacrament. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

66. The sacrament of marriage 
is only an adjunct of the contract, 
and separable from it, and the sac- 
rament itself consists in the nup- 
tial benediction alone. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

67. By the law of nature, the 
marriage tie is not indissoluble, 
and in many cases divorce, prop- 
erly so called, may be pronounced 
by the civil authority. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept. 1852. 

68. The Church has not the power 
of laying down what are diriment 
impediments to marriage. The 
civil authority does possess such a 



126 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



a qua impedimenta exist entia 
tollenda sunt. 

Litt. Apost. MuUiplices inter 10 junii 
1851. 

69. Ecclesia sequioribus scecu- 
lis dirimentia impedimenta in- 
ducere coepit, non jure proprio, 
sed illo jure usa, quod a civili 
potestate mutuata erat. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

70 % Tridentini canones, qui 
anathematis censuram illis in- 
fertility qui faeultatem impedi- 
menta dirimentia inducendi Ee- 
clesicB negare audeant, vel non 
sunt dogmatici vel de hac 
mutuata potestate intelligendi 
sunt. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

71. Tridentini forma sub in- 
firmitatis poena non obligate ubi 
lex civilis aliam formam proe- 
stituat, et velit hac nova forma 
inter ve?iienie matrimonium va- 
lere. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce. 22 augusti 
1851. 

72. Bonifacius VIII. votum 
castitatis in ordinatione emis- 
sum nuptias nullas reddere pri- 
mus asseruit. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 



power, and can do away with exist- 
ing impediments to marriage. 

Apostolic Letter, MuUiplices inter, 10th 
June, 1851. 

69. The Church only commenced 
in later ages to bring in diriment 
impediments, and then availing her- 
self of a right not her own, but 
borrowed from the civil power. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

70. The canons of the Council 
of Trent, which pronounce censure 
of anathema against those who de- 
ny to the Church the right of lay- 
ing down what are diriment imped- 
iments, either are not dogmatic, or 
must be understood as referring 
only to such borrowed power. 

- Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

71. The form of solemnizing mar- 
riage prescribed by the said Council, 
under penalty of nullity, does not 
bind in cases where the civil law has 
appointed another form, and where 
it decrees that this new form shall 
effectuate a valid marriage. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

72. Boniface Till, is the first 
who declared that the vow of 
chastity pronounced at ordination 
annuls nuptials. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERPvOKS. 



127 



73. Vi contractus mere civilis 
potest inter Christianos constare 
veri nominis matrimonium • 
falsumque est, aut contraction 
matrimonii inter Christianos 
semper esse sacramentum, aut 
nullum esse contraction, si sa- 
cr amentum excludatur. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

Lettera di S. S. PIO IX. al He di Sardeg- 
na 9 settembre 1852. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 

Alloc. Multis gravibusque 17 decembris 
1860. 

74. Caussce matrimoniales et 
sponsalia suapte natura ad fo- 
rum civile pertinent. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolicce 22 augusti 
1851. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 

N. B. — Hue facere possunt duo alii errores 
de clericorum cozlibatu abolendo et de statu 
matrimonii statui virginitatis anteferendo. 
{Confodiuntur, prior in epist. encycL Qui 
pluribus 9 novembris 1816, posterior in 
litteris apost. Multiplies inter 10 junii 
1851.) 



§ IX. — EEEOEES DE CIVILI EOMANI 
PONTIFICIS PEINCIPATIT. 

75. De temporalis regni cum 
spirituali compatihilitate dispu- 
tant inter se Christians et Ca- 
tholics EcclesicB filii. 

Litt. Apost. Ad apostolical 22 augusti 
1851. 



73. A merely civil contract may, 
among Christians, constitute a true 
marriage ; and it is false, either 
that the marriage contract be- 
tween Christians is always a sac- 
rament, or that the contract is 
null if the sacrament be exclud- 
ed. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolical, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

Letter to the King of Sardinia, 9th Sep- 
tember, 1852. 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1852. 

Allocution Multis gravibusque, 17th De- 
cember, 1860. 

74. Matrimonial causes and es- 
pousals belong by their very nature 
to civil jurisdiction. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 

Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1852. 

N. B. — Two other errors may tend in this 
direction, those upon the abolition of the celib- 
acy of priests, and the preference due to the 
state of marriage over that of virginity. These 
have been proscribed ; the first in the Ency- 
clical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9, 1846; the second 
in the Apostolic Letter Multiplices inter, 
June 10th, 1851. 

§ IX. — EEEOES EEGAEDING THE CIVIL 
POWEE OF THE SOVEEEIGN PONTIFF. 

75. The children of the Christian 
and Catholic Church are not agreed 
upon the compatibility of the tem- 
poral with the spiritual power. 

Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicce, 22d Au- 
gust, 1851. 



128 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



76. Abrogatio civilis imperii, 
quo Apostolica Sedes potitur, ad 
Ecclesice libertatem felicitatem- 
que vel maxime conduceret. 

Alloc. Quibus quantisque 20 aprilis 
1849. 

N. B. — Proeter hos errores explicite nota- 
tos, alii complures implicite reprobantur, pro- 
posita et asserta doctrina, quam Catholici 
omnes Jirmissime retinere debeant, de civili 
Romani Pontijicis principatu. (Ejusmodi 
doctrina luculenter traditur in Alloc. Quibus 
quantisque 20 aprilis 1849 ; in Alloc. Si semper 
antea 20 maii 1850 ; in Litt. apost. Quum 
Catholica Ecelesia 26 martii 1860; in Alloc. 
Novos 28 sept. 1860; in Alloc. Jaradudum 
18 martii 1861; in Alloc. Maxima quidem 9 
junii 1862. 



§ X. — EEEOEES QUI AD LIBEEALIS- 
MUM HODIEENUM EEFEEUNTUE. 

77. JEtate hac nostra non am- 
plius expedite religionem Catho- 
licam haberi tamquam unicam 
Status religionem, ceteris quibus- 
cumque cultibus exclusis. 

Alloc. Ne?no vestrum 26 julii 1855. 

78. Hinc laudabiliter in qui- 
basdam Catholici nominis regio- 
nibus lege cautum est, ut ho- 
minibus illuc immigrantibus li- 
ceat publicum proprii cujusque 
cultus exercitium habere. 

Alloc. Acerbissimum 27 septembris 1852. 

79. JEnimvero falsum est, civi- 
lem cujusque cultus libertatem, 



76. The abolition of the tempo- 
ral power, of which the Apostolic 
See is possessed, would contribute 
in the greatest degree to the liberty 
and prosperity of the Church. 

Allocution Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 
1849. 

N.B. — Besides these errors, explicitly noted, 
many others are impliedly rebuked by the pro- 
posed and asserted doctrine, which all Cath- 
olics are bound most firmly to hold, touching 
the temporal sovereignty of the Roman Pon- 
tiff. These doctrines are clearly stated in the 
Allocutions Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 
1 849, and Si semper antea, 20th May, 1850 ; 
Apost. Letter Quum Catholica Ecelesia, 26th 
March, 1860; Allocutions Novos, 28th Sept., 
1860; Jamdudum, 18th March, 1861; and 
Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. 

§ X. EEEOES HAVING EEFEEENCE 

TO MODEEN LIBEEALISM. 

78. Ill the present day, it is no 
longer expedient that the Catholic 
religion shall be held as the only 
religion of the State, to the exclu- 
sion of all other modes of worship. 

Allocution Nemo vestrum, 26th July, 1855. 

78. Whence it has been wisely 
provided by law, in some countries 
called Catholic, that persons com- 
ing to reside therein shall enjoy 
the public exercise of their own 
worship. 

Allocution A cerbissimum, 27 th Sept., 1852. 

79. Moreover, it is false that the 
civil liberty of every mode of wor- 



THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. 



129 



itemque plenam potestatem om- 
nibus attributam quaslibet opi- 
niones cogitationesque palam pu- 
bliceque manifestandi conducere 
ad populorum mores animosque 
facilius corrumpendos ac in- 
differentismi pestem propogan- 
dam. 

Alloc. Nunquam fore 15 decembris 1856. 

80. Bomanus Pontifex potest 
ac debet cum progressu, cum li- 
beralismo et cum recenti civili- 
tate sese reconciliare et compo- 
nere. 

Alloc. Jamdudum cernimus 18 martii 
1861. 

I 



ship, and the full power given to 
all of overtly and publicly mani- 
festing their opinions and their 
ideas, of all kinds whatsoever, con- 
duce more easily to corrupt the 
morals and minds of the people, 
and to the propagation of the pest 
of indifferentism. 

Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856. 

80. The Homan Pontiff can and 
ought to reconcile himself to, and 
agree with, progress, liberalism, 
and civilization as lately intro- 
duced. 

Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, 18th 
March, 1861. 



DECRETA DOGMATICA CONCILII YATICANI DE FIDE 
CATHOLICA ET DE ECCLESIA CHRISTI. 

[The Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council concerning the 
Catholic Faith and the Church of Christ. A.D. 1870.] 



[The Latin text from Acta et Decreta sacrosancti et cecumenici Concilii Vaticani, etc., cum permissione 
superiorum, Friburgi Brisgoviae, 1871, Fasc. H. pp. 170-179, and 181-187. The English translation from 
Archbishop Manning : Petri Privilegium, London, 1871, Part III. pp. 192-203, and 211-219. On the Vati- 
can Council, see the preceding history.] 



Constitutio Dogmatic a de Fide 
Catholica. 

Sessio III. Habita die 24 Aprilis 
1870. 

PIUS episcopus, servus servorum 

DEI, SACRO APPROBANTE CONCILIO, 
AD PERPETUAM REI MEMORIAM. 

Dei Films et generis humani 
Redemptor, Dominus Noster Je- 
sus Christies, ad Patrem code- 
stem rediturus, cum Ecclesia 
sua in terris militante omni- 
bus diebus usque ad consumma- 
tionem sceculi futurum se esse 
promisit. Quare dilectce spon- 
sce prcesto esse, adsistere docenti, 
qperanti benedicere, periclitanti 
opem ferre nullo unquam tem- 
pore destitit. Hcbc vero salu- 
taris ejus providentia, cum ex 
aliis beneficiis innumeris conti- 
nenter apparuit, turn Us mani- 
festissime comperta est fructi- 
bus, qui orbi Christiano e Con- 
ciliis cecumenicis, ac nominatim 



Dogmatic Constitution on the 
Catholic Faith. 

Published in the Third Session, 
held April 24, 1870. 

PIUS, BISHOP, servant of the serv- 
ants OF GOD, WITH THE,, APPROVAL 
OF THE SACRED COUNCIL, FOR PER- 
PETUAL REMEMBRANCE. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God, and Redeemer of Man- 
kind, before returning to his heav- 
enly Father, promised that he would 
be with the Church Militant on 
earth all days, even to the consum- 
mation of the world. Therefore, 
he has never ceased to be present 
with his beloved Spouse, to assist 
her when teaching, to bless her when 
at work, and to aid her when in 
danger. And this his salutary prov- 
idence, which has been constantly 
displayed by other innumerable 
benefits, has been most manifestly 
proved by the abundant good re- 
sults which Christendom has de- 
rived from oecumenical Councils, 



132 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



e Tridentino, iniquis licet tempo- 
ribus celebrato, amplissimi pro- 
venerunt. Hinc enim sanctissi- 
ma religionis dogmata pressius 
definita uberiusque exposita, er- 
rores damnati atque cohibiti ; 
hinc ecclesiastica disciplina re- 
stituta firmiusque sancita, pro- 
motum in clero scientice et pie- 
tatis studium, parata adolescen- 
tibus ad sacram militiam edu- 
candis collegia, Christiani de- 
nique populi mores et accu- 
ratiore fidelium eruditione et 
frequentiore saemmentorum usu 
instaurati. Hinc prceterea arc- 
tior membrorum cum visibili 
Capite communio, universoque 
corpori Christi mystico additus 
vigor; hinc religioscz multipli- 
catce families aliaque Christians 
pietatis instituta; hinc ille eti- 
am assiduus et usque ad san- 
guinis effusionem constans ardor 
in Christi regno late per orbem 
propagando. 

Verumtamen hoec aliaque in- 
signia emolumenta, quce per 
ultimam maxime oscumenicam 
Synodum divina dementia Ec- 
clesice largita est, dum grato, quo 
par est, animo recolimus, acer- 
bum compescere haud possumus 
dolorem ob mala gravissima, inde 



and particularly from that of Trent, 
although it was held in evil times. 
For, as a consequence, the sacred 
doctrines of the faith have been de- 
fined more closely, and set forth 
more fully, errors have been con- 
demned and restrained, ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline has been restored and 
more firmly secured, the love of 
learning and of piety has been pro- 
moted among the clergy, colleges 
have been established to educate 
youth for the sacred warfare, and 
the morals of the Christian world 
have been renewed by the more ac- 
curate training of the faithful, and 
by the more frequent use of the sac- 
raments. Moreover, there has re- 
sulted a closer communion of the 
members with the visible head, an 
increase of vigor in the whole mys- 
tical body of Christ, the multipli- 
cation of religious congregations, 
and of other institutions of Chris- 
tian piety, and such ardor in extend- 
ing the kingdom of Christ through- 
out the world as constantly endures, 
even to the sacrifice of life itself. 

But while we recall with due 
thankfulness these and other sig- 
nal benefits which the divine 
mercy has bestowed on the 
Church, especially by the last 
oecumenical Council, we can not 
restrain our bitter sorrow for 
the grave evils, which are prin- 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 133 



potissimum orta, quod ejusdem 
sacrosanct^ Synodi apud per- 
multos vel auctoritas contempta, 
vel sapientissima neglecta fuere 
decreta. 

Nemo enim ignorat, hcereses, 
quas Tridentini Patres proscrip- 
serunt, dum, rejecto divino Ec- 
clesice magisterio, res ad religio- 
nem spectantes privati cujusvis 
judicio permitterentur, in sec- 
tas paullatim dissolutas esse 
multiplices, quibus inter se dis- 
sentientibus et concertantibus, 
omnis tandem in Christum fides 
apud non paucos labefactata est. 
Itaque ipsa Sacra Biblia, quce 
antea Christians doctrince uni- 
cus fans et judex asserebantur, 
jam non pro divinis haberi, imo 
mythicis commentis accenseri coe- 
perunt. 

Turn nata est et late nimis 
per orbem vagata ilia rationa- 
lismi seu naturalismi doctrina, 
quce religioni Christiana utpote 
supematurali instituto per om- 
nia adversans, summo studio 
molitur, ut Christo, qui solus 
Dominus et Salvator noster est, 
a mentibus humanis, a vita et 
moribus populorum excluso, me- 
rce quod meant rationis vel na- 
turce regnum stabiliatur. Re- 
licta autem projectaque Christi- 
ana religione, negato vero Deo 



cipally due to the fact that 
the authority of that sacred 
Synod has been contemned, or 
its wise decrees neglected, by 
many. 

No one is ignorant that the here- 
sies proscribed by the Fathers of 
Trent, by which the divine magis- 
terium of the Church was rejected, 
and all matters regarding religion 
were surrendered to the judgment 
of each individual, gradually be- 
came dissolved into many sects, 
which disagreed and contended 
with one another, until at length 
not a few lost all faith in Christ. 
Even the Holy Scriptures, which 
had previously been declared the 
sole source and judge of Christian 
doctrine, began to be held no longer 
as divine, but to be ranked among 
the fictions of mythology. 

Then there arose, and too widely 
overspread the world, that doctrine 
of rationalism, or naturalism, which 
opposes itself in every way to the 
Christian religion as a supernatural 
institution, and works with the ut- 
most zeal in order that, after Christ, 
our sole Lord and Saviour, has been 
excluded from the minds of men, 
and from the life and moral acts of 
nations, the reign of what they call 
pure reason or nature may be estab- 
lished.- And after forsaking and re- 
jecting the Christian religion, and 



134 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



et Christo ejus, prolapsa tandem 
est multorum mens in Panthe- 
ismi, Materialism^ Atheismi ba- 
rathrum, ut jam ipsam rationa- 
lem naturam, omnemque justi 
rectique nOrmam negantes, irna 
humance societatis ficndamenta 
diruere connitaniur. 

Hac porro impietate circum- 
quaque grassante, i?ifeliciter con- 
tigit, ut plures etiam e Catho- 
licoe Ecclesice, filiis a via verce 
pietatis aberrarent, in Usque, 
diminutis paidlatim veritatibus, 
sensus Catholicus attenuaretur. 
Variis enim ac peregrinis doc- 
trinis abducti, naturam et gra- 
tiam, scientiam humanam et 
fidem divinam perperam com- 
miscentes, genuinum sensum dog- 
matum, quern tenet ac docet 
sancta mater Ecclesia, depra- 
vare, integritatemque et sinceri- 
tatem jidei in periculum addu- 
cere comperiuntur. 

Quibus omnibus perspectis, fie- 
ri qui potest, ut non commove- 
antur intima Ecclesioe viscera? 
Quemadmodum enim Deus vult 
omnes homines salvos fieri, et 
ad agnitionem veritatis venire; 
quemadmodum Christus venit, 
ut salvum faceret, quod perie- 
rat, et filios Dei, qui erant dis- 
persi, congregaret in unum : 
itO; Ecclesia, a Deo populorum 



denying the true God and his Christ, 
the minds of many have sunk into 
the abyss of Pantheism, Material- 
ism, and Atheism, until, denying 
rational nature itself, and every 
sound rule of right, they labor to 
destroy the deepest foundations of 
human society. 

Unhappily, it has yet further 
come to pass that, while this im- 
piety prevailed on every side, many 
even of the children of the Catho- 
lic Church have strayed from the 
path of true piety, and by the grad- 
ual diminution of the truths they 
held, the Catholic sense became 
weakened in them. For, led away 
by various and strange doctrines, 
utterly confusing nature and grace, 
human science and divine faith, 
they are found to deprave the true 
sense of the doctrines which our 
holy Mother Church holds and 
teaches, and endanger the integrity 
and the soundness of the faith. 

Considering these things, how can 
the Church fail to be deeply stirred? 
For, even as God wills all men to 
be saved, and to arrive atthe knowl- 
edge of the truth, even as Christ 
came to save what had perished, 
and to gather together the children 
of God who had been dispersed, 
so the Church, constituted by God 
the mother and teacher of nations, 
knows its own office as debtor to all, 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



135 



mater et magistra constituta, om- 
nibus debitricem se novit, ac lapsos 
erigere, labantes sustinere, rever- 
tentes amplecti, confirmare bonos et 
ad meliora provehere parata sem- 
per et intenta est. Quaprop>ter nulr 
lo tempore a Dei veritate, qum sa- 
nat omnia, testanda et prcedicanda 
quiescere potest, sibi dictum esse 
non ignorans : Spiritus mens, qui 
est in te, et verba mea, guceposui in 
ore tuo, non recedent de ore tuo 
amodo et usque in sempiternum. 

J¥~os itaque, inhwrentes prce- 
decessorum nostrorum vestigiis, 
pro supremo nostro Apostolico 
munere veritatem Catholicam do- 
cere ac tueri perversasque doo 
trinas reprobare nunquam in- 
termissimus. Nunc autem, se- 
dentibus nobiscum et judicanti- 
bus universi orbis Episcopis, in 
hanc aicumenicam Synodum auc- 
toritate nostra in Spiritu Sancto 
congregatis, innixi Dei verbo 
scripto et tradito, prout ab Ec- 
clesia Catholica sancte custodi- 
tum et genuine expositum accepi- 
mus, ' ex hac Petri Cathedra, in 
conspectu omnium, salutarem 
Ohristi doctrinam profiteri et 
declarare constituimus, adversis 
erroribus potestate nobis a Deo 
tradita proscriptis atque dam- 
natis. 



and is ever ready and watchful to 
raise the fallen, to support those 
who are falling, to embrace those 
who return, to confirm the good and 
to carry them on to better things. 
Hence, it can never forbear from 
witnessing to and proclaiming the 
truth of God, which heals all things, 
knowing the words addressed to it : 
s My Spirit that is in thee, and my 
words that I have put in thy mouth, 
shall not depart out of thy mouth, 
from henceforth and forever.' 1 

We, therefore, following the foot- 
steps of our predecessors, have never 
ceased, as becomes our supreme 
Apostolic office, from teaching and 
defending Catholic truth, and con- 
demning doctrines of error. And 
now, with the Bishops of the whole 
world assembled round us, and j udg- 
ing with us, congregated by our au- 
thority, and in the Holy Spirit, in 
this oecumenical Council, we, sup- 
ported by the Word of God written 
and handed down as we received it 
from the Catholic Church, preserved 
with sacredness and set forth ac- 
cording to truth, have determined 
to profess and declare the salutary 
teaching of Christ from this Chair 
of Peter, and in sight of all, pro- 
scribing and condemning, by the 
power given to us of God, all er 
rors contrary thereto. 



1 Isaiah lix. 21. 



136 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

Caput I. 
De Deo rerum omnium Creatore. 

Sancta Catholica Apostolica 
JRomana Ecclesia credit et con- 
fitetur, U7ium esse Deum verum 
et vivum, Great or em ac Domi- 
num coeli et terrce, omnipoten- 
tem, ceternum, immensum, in- 
comprehensibilem, intellectu ac 
voluntate omnique perfectione 
infinitum; qui cum sit una sin- 
gularis, simplex omnino et in- 
commutahilis substantia spiritu- 
alise prcedicandus est re et essen- 
tia a mundo distinctus, in se et 
ex se beatissimus, et super omnia, 
quce prceter ipsum sunt et con- 
cipi possunt, ineffabiliter excelsus. 

Sic solus verus Deus bonitate 
sua et omnipotenti virtute non 
ad augendam suam beatitudi- 
nem, nec ad acquirendam, sed ad 
manifestandam perfectionem su- 
am per bona, quce creaturis im- 
pertitur, Uberrima consilio si- 
mul ab initio temporis utram- 
que de nihilo condidit creatu- 
ram, spiritualem et corporalem, 
angelicam videlicet et munda- 
nam, ac deinde humanam quasi 
communem ex spiritu et corpore 
constitutam. 

Universa vero, quce condidit, 
Deus providentia sua tuetur at- 
que gubernat, attingens a fine 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

Chapter I. 
Of God, the Creator of all Things. 

The holy Catholic Apostolic Ro- 
man Church believes and confesses 
that there is one true and living 
God, Creator and Lord of heaven 
and earth, almighty, eternal, im- 
mense, incomprehensible, infinite 
in intelligence, in will, and in all 
perfection, who, as being one, sole, 
absolutely simple and immutable 
spiritual substance, is to be de- 
clared as really and essentially dis-* 
tinct from the world, of supreme 
beatitude in and from himself, and 
ineffably exalted above all things 
which exist, or are conceivable, ex- 
cept himself. 

This one only true God, of his 
own goodness and almighty power, 
not for the increase or acquirement 
of his own happiness, but to mani- 
fest his perfection by the blessings 
which he bestows on creatures, and 
with absolute freedom of counsel, 
created out of nothing, from the 
very first beginning of time, both 
the spiritual and the corporeal creat- 
ure, to wit, the angelical and the 
mundane, and afterwards the hu- 
man creature, as partaking, in a 
sense, of both, consisting of spirit 
and of body. 

God protects and governs by his 
providence all things which he hath 
made, 'reaching from end to end 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

usque ad finem fortiter, et dis- 
ponens omnia suaviter. Omnia 
enim nuda et aperta sunt oculis 
ejus, ea etiam, quce libera crea- 
turarum actione futura sunt. 

Caput II. 
De Revelatione. 

Eadem sancta mater Ecclesia 
tenet et docet, Deum, rerum om- 
nium principium et finem, na- 
turali humance rationis lumine 
e rebus creatis certo cognosci 
posse; invisibilia enim ipsius, 
a creatura mundi, per ea quce 
facta sunt, intellecta, conspici- 
untur : attamen placuisse ejus 
sapientice et bonitati, alia, eaque 
supernaturali via se ipsum ac 
ceterna voluntatis suce deereta 
humano generi revelare, dicente 
Apostolo : Multifariam, multis- 
que modis olim Deus loquens 
patribus in Prophetis : novis- 
sime, diebus istis locutus est no- 
bis in Filio. 

Huio divince revelationi tri- 
buendum quidem est, ut ea, quce 
in rebus divinis humance ratio- 
ni per se impervia non s-unt, in 
prcesenti quoque generis humani 
conditione ab omnibus expedite, 
firma eertitudine et nullo ad- 
mixto errore cognosci possint. 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 137 

mightily, and ordering all things 
sweetly.' 1 For ' all things are bare 
and open to his eyes,' 2 even those 
which are yet to be by the free 
action of creatures. 

Chapter II. 
Of Revelation. 

The same holy Mother Church 
holds and teaches that God, the be- 
ginning and end of all things, may 
be certainly known by the natural 
light of human reason, by means of 
created things; 'for the invisible 
things of him from the creation of 
the world are clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are 
made,' 3 but that it pleased his wis- 
dom and bounty to reveal himself, 
and the eternal decrees of his will, 
to mankind by another and a super- 
natural way : as the Apostle says, 
£ God, having spoken on divers oc- 
casions, and many ways, in times 
past, to the Fathers by the Prophets ; 
last of all, in these days, hath spoken 
to us by his Son.' 4 

It is to be ascribed to this divine 
revelation, that such truths among 
things divine as of themselves are 
not beyond human reason, can, 
even in the present condition of 
mankind, be known by every one 
with facility, with firm assurance, 
and with no admixture of error. 



1 Wisd. viii. 1. 



2 Heb. iv. 13. 



3 Rom. i. 20. 4 Heb. i. 1,2. 



138 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Non hac tamen de causa revela- 
tio absolute necessaria dicenda 
est, sed quia Deus ex infinita 
bonitate sua ordinavit hominem 
ad finem super naturale??i, ad 
participanda scilicet bona divi- 
na, quoe humanoe mentis intelli- 
gentiam omnino superant ; si- 
quidem oculus non vidit, nec 
auris audivit, nec in cor homi- 
nis ascendit, quce prozparavit 
Deus Us, qui diligunt ilium. 

Hozc porro supernaturalis re- 
velatio, secundum universalis Ec- 
clesice fidem, a sancta Triden- 
tina Synodo declaratam, conti- 
netur in libris scriptis et sine 
scripto traditionibus, quoe ip- 
sius Christi ore ab Apostolus 
aeceptce, aut ab ' ipsis Apostolus 
Spiritu Sancto dictante quasi 
per manus traditce, ad ?ios us- 
que pervenerunt. Qui quidem 
veteris et Novi Testamenti libri 
integri cum omnibus suis par- 
tibus, prout in ejusdem Concilii 
decreto recensentur, et in veteri 
vulgata latina editione habentur. 
pro sacris et canonicis suscipi- 
endi sunt. Eos vero Ecclesia 
pro sacris et canonicis habet, 
non ideo, quod sola humana 
industria concinnati, sua deinde 



This, however, is not the reason wiry- 
revelation is to be called absolutely 
necessary ; but because God of his 
infinite goodness has ordained man 
to a supernatural end, viz., to be a 
sharer of divine blessings, which 
utterly exceed the intelligence of 
the human mind ; for 6 eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it 
entered into the heart of man, what 
things God hath prepared for them 
that love him.' 1 

Further, this supernatural reve- 
lation, according to the universal 
belief of the Church, declared by 
the sacred Synod of Trent, is con- 
tained in the written books and un- 
written traditions which have come 
down to us, having been received 
by the Apostles from the mouth of 
Christ himself ; or from the Apos- 
tles themselves, by the dictation of 
the Holy Spirit, have been trans- 
mitted, as it were, from hand to 
hand. 2 And these books of the Old 
and New Testament are to be re- 
ceived as sacred and canonical, in 
their integrity, with all their parts, 
as they are enumerated in the de- 
cree of the said Council, and are 
contained in the ancient Latin edi- 
tion of the Yulgate. These the 
Church holds to be sacred and 



1 1 Cor. ii. 9. 

2 Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Session the Fourth. Decree concerning the 
Canonical Scriptures. 



DOGMATIC DECEEES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



139 



auctoritate sint approbati / nec 
ideo dumtaxat, quod revelatio- 
nem sine errore continea?it, sed 
proptereo, quod Spiritu Sancto 
inspirante conscripti Deum ha- 
bent auctorem, atque at tales 
ipsi Ecclesion traditi sunt. 



Quoniam vero, quae sancta 
Tridentino Synodus de inter- 
pretatione divince Scriptural ad 
coercenda petulantio ingenia sa- 
lubriter decrevit, a quibusdam 
hominibus prove exponuntur, 
nos, idefn decretum re?iovantes, 
hanc illius mentem esse declara- 
mus, ut in rebus fidei et mo- 
rum, ad cediftcationem doctrince 
Christianas pertinentium, is pro 
vero sensu sacrce Scriptural ha- 
bendus sit, quern tenuit ac tenet 
sancta mater Ecclesio, cujus est 
judicare de vero sensu et inter- 
pretatione Scripturarum sancto- 
rum/ atque ideo nemini licere 
contra nunc sensum out etiam 
contra unanimem consensum Pa- 
trum ipsam Scripturam sacram 
interpretari. 

Caput ILL 
Be Fide. 

Quum homo o Deo tamquam 
Creator e et Domino suo tot us 



canonical, not because, having been 
carefully composed by mere human 
industry, they were afterwards ap- 
proved by her authority, nor merely 
because they contain revelation, with 
no admixture of error; but because, 
having been written by the inspira- 
tion of the Holy Ghost, they have God 
for their author, and have been de- 
livered as such to the Church herself. 

And as the things which the holy 
Synod of Trent decreed for the good 
of souls concerning the interpreta- 
tion of Divine Scripture, in order 
to curb rebellious spirits, have been 
wrongly explained by some, we, re- 
newing the said decree, declare this 
to be their sense, that, in matters of 
faith and morals, appertaining to 
the building up of Christian doc- 
trine, that is to be held as the true 
sense of Holy Scripture which our 
holy Mother Church hath held and 
holds, to whom it belongs to judge 
of the true sense and interpreta- 
tion of the Holy Scripture; and 
therefore that it is permitted to no 
one to interpret the Sacred Scripture 
contrary to this sense, nor, likewise, 
contrary to the unanimous consent 
of the Fathers. 

Chapter III. 
On Faith. 

Man being wholly dependent 
upon God, as upon his Creator and 



140 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



dependeat, et ratio creata incre- 
atce veritati penitus subjecta sit, 
plenum revelanti Deo intellec- 
tus et voluntatis obsequitim fide 
prozstare tenemur. Hanc vero 
fidem, quce humance salutis ini- 
tium est, Ecelesia Catholica pro- 
fitetur, virtutem esse supernatu- 
ralem, qua, Dei aspirante et ad- 
juvante gratia, ab eo revelata 
vera esse credimus, non propter 
intrinsecam rerum veritatem na- 
turali rationis lumine perspec- 
tam, sed propter auctoritatem 
ipsius Dei revelantis, qui nec 
falli nec fallere potest. Est 
enim fides, testante Apostolo, 
sperandarum substantia rerum, 
argumentum non apparentium. 

Ut nihilominus fidei nostrce 
obsequium rationi consentaneum 
esset, voluit Deus cum internis 
Spiritus Sa?icti auxiliis externa 
jungi revelationis suce argu- 
menta, facta scilicet divina, at- 
que imprimis mir acuta et pro- 
phetias, quae cum Dei omnipo- 
tentiam et infinitam scientiam 
luculenter commonstrent, divince 
revelationis signa sunt certissi- 
ma et omnium intelligences 
accommodata. Quare turn Mou- 
ses et Prophetce, turn ipse ma- 



Lord, and created reason being ab- 
solutely subject to uncreated truth, 
we are bound to yield to God, by 
faith in his revelation, the full obe- 
dience of our intelligence and will. 
And the Catholic Church teaches 
that this faith, which is the begin- 
ning of man's salvation, is a super- 
natural virtue, whereby, inspired 
and assisted by the grace of God, 
we believe that the things which 
he has revealed are true; not be- 
cause of the intrinsic truth of the 
things, viewed by the natural light 
of reason, but because of the au- 
thority of God himself, who reveals 
them, and who can neither be de- 
ceived nor deceive. For faith, as 
the Apostle testifies, is 'the sub- 
stance of things hoped for, the con- 
viction of things that appear not.' 1 
Nevertheless, in order that the 
obedience of our faith might be in 
harmony with reason, God willed 
that to the interior help of the Holy 
Spirit there should be joined exte- 
rior proofs of his revelation; to 
wit, divine facts, and especially 
miracles and prophecies, which, as 
they manifestly display the omnip- 
otence and infinite knowledge of 
God, are most certain proofs of his 
divine revelation, adapted to the 
intelligence of all men. Wherefore, 
both Moses and the Prophets, and, 



1 Heb. i. 11. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OE 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 141 



xime Christus Dominus multa 
et manifestissima miracula et 
prophetias ediderunt; et de 
Apostolis legimus : Illi autem 
profecti prcedicaverunt ubique, 
Domino cooperante et sermo- 
nem confirmante sequentibus si- 
gnis. Et rursum scriptum est; 
Habemus firmiorem propheticum 
sermonem, cui bene facitis at- 
tendentes quasi lucernce lucenti 
in caliginoso loco. 

Licet autem fidei assensus ne- 
quaquam sit motus animi cce- 
cus : nemo tamen evangelicce 
prmdicationi consentire potest, 
sicut oportet ad salutem conse- 
quendam, absque illuminatione 
et inspiratione Spiritus Sancti, 
qui dat omnibus suavitatem in 
consentiendo et credendo veri- 
tati. Quare fides ipsa in se, 
etiamsi per caritatem non ope- 
retur, donum Dei est, et actus 
ejus est opus ad salutem perti- 
nens, quo homo liberam prcestat 
ipsi Deo obedientiam, gratio3 
ejus, cui resistere posset, consen- 
tiendo et cooperando. 

Potto fide divina et Catho- 
lica ea omnia credenda sunt, 
quce in verbo Dei scripto vel 
tradito continentur, et ab Eccle- 



most especially, Christ our Lord 
himself, showed forth many and 
most evident miracles and prophe- 
cies ; and of the Apostles we read : 
'But they going forth preached 
every where, the Lord working with- 
al, and confirming the word with 
signs that followed.' 1 And again, 
it is written : 4 We have the more 
firm prophetical word, whereunto 
you do well to attend, as to a light 
shining in a dark place.' 2 

But though the assent of faith is 
by no means a blind action of the 
mind, still no man can assent to 
the Gospel teaching, as is necessary 
to obtain salvation, without the il- 
lumination and inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit, who gives to all men 
sweetness in assenting to and believ- 
ing in the truth. 3 Wherefore, faith 
itself, even when it does not work 
by charity, is in itself a gift of God, 
and the act of faith is a work ap- 
pertaining to salvation, by which 
man yields voluntary obedience to 
God himself, by assenting to and 
co-operating with his grace, which 
he is able to resist. 

Further, all those things are to 
be believed with divine and Catho- 
lic faith which are contained in the 
Word of God, written or handed 



1 Mark xvi. 20. 2 2 Peter i. 19. 

3 Canons of the Second Council of Orange, confirmed by Pope Boniface II., A.D. 529, 
against the Semipelagians, Canon VII. See Denzinger's Enchiridion Symbolorum, p. 53 
(Wurzburg, 1865). 



142 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

sia sive solemni judicio sive 
ordinario et universali magis- 
terio tamquam divinitus reve- 
lata credenda proponuntur. 

Quoniam vero sine fide im- 
possible est placere Deo, et ad 
filiorum ejus consortium perve- 
nire; ideo nemini unquam sine 
ilia contigit justificatio, nec ul- 
lus, nisi in ea per sever averit 
usque in finem, vitam ceternam 
assequetur. Ut autem officio ve- 
ram fidem amplectendi, in eaque 
constanter perseverandi satisfa- 
cere possemus, Deus per Filium 
suum unigenitum Ecclesiam in- 
stitute, suceque institutionis ??ia- 
nifestis notis instruxit, ut ea 
tamquam custos et magistra ver- 
bi revelati ab omnibus posset 
agnosci. Ad solam enim Catho- 
licam Ecclesiam ea pertinent 
omnia, quce ad evident em fidei 
Christians credibilitatem tarn 
multa et tarn mira divinitus 
sunt disposita. Quin etiam Ec- 
clesia per se ipsa, 6b suam nempe 
admirabilem propagationem, exi- 
miam sanctitatem et inexhaustam 
in omnibits bonis foecunditatem, 
ob Catholicam unitatem, invictam- 
que stabilitatem, magnitm quod- 
dam et perpetuum est motivum 
credibilitatis et divince suce lega- 
tionis testimonium irrefragabile. 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

down, and which the Church, either 
by a solemn judgment, or by her 
ordinary and universal magisteri- 
um, proposes for belief as having 
been divinely revealed. 

And since, without faith, it is 
impossible to please God, and to 
attain to the fellowship of his chil- 
dren, therefore without faith no one 
has ever attained justification, nor 
will any one obtain eternal life 
unless he shall have persevered in 
faith unto the end. And, that we 
may be able to satisfy the obliga- 
tion of embracing, the true faith, 
and of constantly persevering in 
it, God has instituted the Church 
through his only-begotten Son, and 
has bestowed on it manifest notes 
of that institution, that it may be 
recognized by all men as the guard- 
ian and teacher of the revealed 
Word ; for to the Catholic Church 
alone belong all those many and 
admirable tokens which have been 
divinely established for the evident 
credibility of the Christian faith. 
Nay, more, the Church by itself, 
with its marvelous extension, its 
eminent holiness, and its inexhaust- 
ible fruitfulness in every good 
thing, with its Catholic unity and 
its invincible stability, is a great 
and perpetual motive of credibility, 
and an irrefutable witness of its 
own divine mission. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 143 



Quo fit, ut ipsa veluti si- 
gnum levatum in nationes, et 
ad se invitet, qui nondum credi- 
derunt, et filios suos ceriiores 
faciat, firmissimo niti funda- 
mento fidem, quam profitentur. 
Cui quidem testimonio efficax 
subsidium accedit ex superna 
virtute. -Etenim benignissimus 
Dominus et errantes gratia sua 
excitat atque adjuvat, ut ad ag- 
nitionem veritatis venire pos- 
sint, et eos, quos de tenebris 
transtulit in admirabile lumen 
suum,, in hoc eodem lumine ut 
perseverent, gratia sua confir- 
mat, non deserens, nisi desera- 
tur. Quocirca minirne par est 
conditio eorum, qui per cceleste 
fidei donum Oatholicce veritati ad- 
hceserunt, atque eorum, qui ducti 
opinionibus humanis, falsam re~ 
ligionem sectantur; illi enim, qui 
fidem sub Ecclesioe magisterio sus- 
ceperunt, nullam unquam habere 
possunt justam causam mutandi, 
aut in dubium fidem eamdem re- 
vocandi. Quce cum ita sint, gra- 
tias agentes Deo Patri, qui dignos 
nos fecit ^n partem sortis sancto- 
rum in lumine, tantam ne negli- 
gamus salutem, sed aspicientes in 
auctorem fidei et consummatorem 
Jesum, teneamus spei nostrce con- 
fessionem indeclinabilem. 



And thus, like a standard set up 
unto the nations, 1 it both invites to 
itself those who do not yet believe, 
and assures its children that the 
faith which they profess rests on 
the most firm foundation. And its 
testimony is efficaciously supported 
by a power from on high. For our 
most merciful Lord gives his grace 
to stir up and to aid those who are 
astray, that they may come to a 
knowledge of the truth; and to 
those whom he has brought out of 
darkness into his own admirable 
light he gives his grace to strength- 
en them to persevere in that light, 
deserting none who desert not him. 
Therefore there is no parity be- 
tween the condition of those who 
have adhered to the Catholic truth 
by the heavenly gift of faith, and 
of those who, led by human opin- 
ions, follow a false religion; for 
those who have received the faith 
under the magisterium of the 
Church can never have any just 
cause for changing or doubting that 
faith. Therefore, giving thanks to 
God the Father who has made us 
worthy to be partakers of the lot of 
the Saints in light, let us not neglect 
so great salvation, but with our eyes 
fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher 
of our f aith,let us hold fast the confes- 
sion of our hope without wavering. 2 



1 Isaiah xi. 1 2. 



3 Heb. xii. 2, and x. 23. 



> 



144 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

Caput IV. 
De Fide et Eatione. 

Hoc quoque perpetuus Eccle- 
sice Catholicce consensus tenuit et 
tenet, duplicem esse ordinem co- 
gnitionis, non solum principio, 
sed objecto etiam distinctum : 
principio quidem, quia in altero 
naturali ratione, in altero fide 
divina cognoscimus; objecto au- 
tem, quia prceter ea, ad quce na- 
turalis ratio pertingere potest, 
credenda nobis proponuntur my- 
steria in Deo abscondita, quce, 
nisi revelata divinitus, innote- 
scere non possunt. Quocirca 
Apostolus, qui a gentibus Deum 
per ea, quce facta sunt, cogni- 
tum esse testatur, disserens ta- 
men de gratia et veritate, quce 
per Jesum Christum facta est, 
pronunciat : Loquimur Dei sa- 
pientiam in mysterio, quce ab- 
scondita est, quam prcedestinavit 
Deus ante scecula in gloriam 
nostram, quam nemo principum 
hujus sceculi cognovit : nobis au- 
tem revelavit Deus per Spiritum 
suum : Spiritus enim omnia 
scrutatur, etiam profunda Dei. 
Et ipse Unigenitus confitetur 
Patri, quia abscondit hcec a sa- 
pientibus et prudentibus, et re- 
velavit ea parvulis. 

Ac ratio quidem, fide illustrata, 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

Chapter IV. 
On Faith and Reason. 

The Catholic Church, with one 
consent, has also ever held and does 
hold that there is a twofold order 
of knowledge distinct both in prin- 
ciple and also in object; in princi- 
ple, because our knowledge in the 
one is by natural reason, and in the 
other by divine faith; in object, 
because, besides those things to 
which natural reason can attain, 
there are proposed to our belief 
mysteries hidden in God, which, 
unless divinely revealed, can not 
be known. Wherefore, the Apos- 
tle, who testifies that God is known 
by the Gentiles through created 
things, still, when discoursing of 
the ^race and truth which come by 
Jesus Christ, 1 says: 'We speak the 
wisdom of God in a mystery, a wis- 
dom which is hidden, which God 
ordained before the world unto our 
glory ; which none of the princes of 
this world knew . . . but to us God 
hath revealed them by his Spirit. 
For the Spirit searcheth all things, 
yea, the deep things of God.' 2 And 
the only-begotten Son himself gives 
thanks to the Father, because he has 
hid these things from the wise and 
prudent, and has revealed them to 
little ones. 3 

Reason, indeed, enlightened by 



1 John i. 17. 



2 1 Cor. ii. 7-9. 



3 Matt. xi. 25. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



145 



cum sedido, pie et sobrie quce- 
rit, aliquant, Deo dante, myste- 
riorum intelligentiam eamque 
fncctuosissimam assequitur, turn 
ex eorum, quce naturaliter cogno- 
scit, analogia, turn e mysterio- 
rum ipsorum nexu inter se et 
cum fine hominis ultimo ; nun- 
quam tamen idonea redditur 
ad ea perspicienda instar veri- 
tatum, quce proprium ipsius 
objectum constituunt. Divina 
enim mysteria suapte natura 
intellectum creatum sic exce- 
dunt, ut etiam revelatione tra- 
dita et fide suscepta, ipsius 
tamen fidei velamine contecta et 
quadam quasi caligine obvoluta 
maneant, quamdiu in hac mor- 
tali vita jperegrinamur a Domi- 
no : jper fid em enim ambula- 
mus, et non jper sjpeciem. ' 

Verum etsi fides sit supra 
rationem, nulla tamen unquam 
inter fidem et rationem vera dis- 
sensio esse potest : cum idem 
Deus, qui mysteria revelat et 
fidem i?ifundit, animo humano 
rationis lumen indiderit ; Deus 
autem negare seipsum non pos- 
sit, nec verum vero unquam con- 
tradicere. Inanis autem hujus 
contradictionis species inde po- 
tissimum oritur, quod vel fidei 



faith, when it seeks earnestly, pious- 
ly, and calmly, attains by a gift 
from God some, and that a very 
fruitful, understanding of myster- 
ies; partly from the analogy of 
those things which it naturally 
knows, partly from the relations 
which the mysteries bear to one 
another and to the last end of man; 
but reason never becomes capable 
of apprehending mysteries as it 
does those truths which constitute 
its proper object. For the divine 
mysteries by their own nature so 
far transcend the created intelli- 
gence that, even when delivered 
by revelation and received by faith, 
they remain covered with the veil 
of faith itself, and shrouded in a 
certain degree of darkness, so long 
as we are pilgrims in this mortal 
life, not yet with God; 6 for we 
walk by faith and not by sight.' 1 

But although faith is above rea- 
son, there can never be any real 
discrepancy between faith and rea- 
son, since the same God who re- 
veals mysteries and infuses faith 
has bestowed the light of reason on 
the human mind ; and God can not 
deny himself, nor can truth ever 
contradict truth. The false ap- 
pearance of such a contradiction is 
mainly due, either to the dogmas 
of faith not having been understood 



1 2 Cor. v. 7. 

K 



146 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



dogmata ad mentem Ecclesice 
intellecta et exposita non fue- 
rint, vel opinionum commenta 
pro rationis effatis habeantur. 
Omnem igitur assertionem veri- 
tati illuminates fidei contrariam 
omnino falsam esse definimus. 
Porro Ecclesia, quae, una cum 
apostolico munere docendi, man- 
datum accepit fidei depositum 
custodiendi, jus etiam et qffici- 
um divinitus habet falsi nomi- 
nis scientiam proscribendi^ ne 
quis decipiatur per philosophi- 
am et inanem fallaciam. Qua- 
propter omnes Christiani fideles 
hujusmodi qpiniones, quce fidei 
doctrines contrarice esse cogno- 
scuntur, maxime si ab Ecclesia 
reprobate fuerint, non solum 
proliibentur tanquam legitimas 
scientice conclusiones defender e, 
sed pro erroribus potius, qui 
fallacem veritatis speciem prce se 
ferant, habere tenentur omnino. 

JWeque solum fides et ratio in- 
ter se dissidere nunquam pos- 
sunt, sed opem quoque sibi mu- 
tuam ferunt, cum Tecta ratio 
fidei fundamenta demonstret, 
ejusque lumine illustrata rerum 
divinarum scientiam excolat / 
fides vero rationem ab erroribus 



and expounded according to the 
mind of the Church, or to the in- 
ventions of opinion having been 
taken for the verdicts of reason. 
We define, therefore, that every 
assertion contrary to a truth of en- 
lightened faith is utterly false. 1 
Further, the Church, which, to- 
gether with the Apostolic office of 
teaching, has received a charge to 
guard the deposit of faith, derives 
from God the right and the duty 
of proscribing false science, lest 
any should be deceived by philoso- 
phy and vain fallacy. 2 Therefore 
all faithful Christians are not only 
forbidden to defend, as legitimate 
conclusions of science, such opin- 
ions as are known to be contrary to 
the doctrines of faith, especially if 
they have been condemned by the 
Church, but are altogether bound 
to account them as errors which 
put on the fallacious appearance 
of truth. 

And not only can faith and rea- 
son never be opposed to one an- 
other, but they are of mutual aid 
one to the other; for right reason 
demonstrates the foundations of 
faith, and, enlightened by its light, ■ 
cultivates the science of things di- 
vine ; while faith frees and guards 



1 From the Bull of Pope Leo X., Apostolici regiminis, read in the Eighth Session of the 
Fifth Lateran Council, A.D. 1513. See Labbe's Councils, Vol. XIX. p. 842 (Venice, 1732). 

2 Coloss. ii. 8. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



147 



liberet ac tueatur, eamque mul- 
tiplici cognitione instruat. Qua- 
prop)ter tantum abest, ut Eccle- 
sia humanarum artium et disci- 
plinarian cultural obsistat, ut 
hanc multis modis juvet atque 
promoveat. Non enim commo- 
da ab Us ad hominum vitam 
dimanantia aut ignorat aut de- 
spicit ; fatetur imo, eas, que- 
madmodum a Deo, scientiarum 
Domino, profectoe sunt, ita si 
rite 'pertractentur, ad Deum, ju- 
vante ejus gratia, pcrducere. 
Nec sane ipsa vetat, ne hujus- 
modi discipline in suo quceque 
ambitu propriis utantur princi- 
piis et propria metfiodo / sed 
justam haiio libertatem agno- 
scens, id sedulo cavet, ne divince 
doctrinal repugnando errores in 
se suscipiant, aut fines proprios 
transgress®, ea, quce sunt fidei, 
occupent et perturbent. 

JSfeque enim fidei doctrina, 
quam Deus revelavit, velut phi- 
losophicum inventum proposita 
est hu?nanis ingeniis perficienda, 
sed tanqtiam divinum deposi- 
tum Christi Sponsor tradita, fide- 
liter custodienda et infallibiliter 
declaranda. Hinc sacrorum quo- 
que dogmatum is sensus perpe- 
tuo est retinendus, quern- semel 
declaravit sancta mater Eccle- 
\ sia, nec unquam ab eo sensu, 



reason from errors, and furnishes 
it with manifold knowledge. So 
far, therefore, is the Church from 
opposing the cultivation of human 
arts and sciences, that it in many 
ways helps and promotes it. For 
the Church neither ignores nor de- 
spises the benefits of human life 
which result from the arts and sci- 
ences, but confesses that, as they 
came from God, the Lord of all 
science, so, if they be rightly used, 
they lead to God by the help of his 
grace. Nor does the Church for- 
bid that each of these sciences in its 
sphere should make use of its own 
principles and its own method ; but, 
while recognizing this just liberty, 
it stands watchfully on guard, lest 
sciences, setting themselves against 
the divine teaching, or trans- 
gressing their own limits, should 
invade and disturb the domain of 
faith. 

For the doctrine of faith which 
God hath revealed has not been 
proposed, like a philosophical in- 
vention, to be perfected by human 
ingenuity, but has been delivered 
as a divine deposit to the Spouse 
of Christ, to be faithfully kept and 
infallibly declared. Hence, also, 
that meaning of the sacred dogmas 
is perpetually to be retained which 
our holy mother the Church has 
once declared ; nor is that meaning 



148 



DOGMATIC DECKEES OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



altioris i?itelligentice specie et j ever to be departed from, under 
nomine ', recedendum. Crescat the pretense or pretext of a deeper 
igitur et multum vehementerque comprehension of them. Let, then, 
jtroficiat, tarn singidorum, quam j the intelligence, science, and wis- 
omniwn, tarn unius hominis, dom of each and all, of individuals 
quam totius Ecclesice, cetatem ac j and of the whole Church, in all 
sceculorum gradibus, intelligent ages and all times, increase and 
tia, scientia, sapientia ; sed in j flourish in abundance and vigor ; 
suo dumtaxat genere, in eodem but simply in its own proper kind, 
scilicet dog?nate, eodem sensu, that is to say, in one and the same 
eademque sententia. doctrine, one and the same sense, 

one and the same judgment. 1 



Canones. 
i. 

De Deo return omnium Creatore. 

1. Si quis unum verum Deum 
visibiliivm et invisibilium Crea- 
tofem et Dominum negaverit : 
anathema sit. 

2. Si quis prceter materiam 
nihil esse affirmare non erubue- 
rit : anathema sit. 

3. Si quis dixerit, unam ean- 
demque esse Dei et rerum omni- 
um substantiam vet essentiam : 
anathema sit. 

4. Si quis dixerit, res Jlnitas, 
turn corporeas turn sjpirituales 
aut saltern spirituales, e divina 
substantia emanasse ; aut divi- 
nam essentiam sui manifesta- 
tione vel evolutione fieri omnia; 
aut denique Deum esse ens uni- 



Canons. 
i. 

Of God, the Creator of all things. 

1. If any one shall deny one true 
God, Creator and Lord of things 
visible and invisible : let him be 
anathema. 

2. If any one shall not be 
ashamed to affirm that, except 
matter, nothing exists : let him be 
anathema. 

3. If any one shall say that the 
substance and essence of God and 
of all things is one and the same : 
let him be anathema. 

4. If any one shall say that finite 
things, both corporeal and spiritual, 
or at least spiritual, have emanated 
from the divine substance ; or that 
the divine essence by the manifesta- 
tion and evolution of itself becomes 
all things; or, lastly, that God is 



1 Vincent, of Lerins, Common, n. 28. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



149 



versale seu indefinitum, quod sese 
determinando constituat rerum 
universitatem in genera, species 
et individua distinctam : anathe- 
ma sit. 

5. Si quis non confiteatur, 
mundum, resque omnes, quce in 
eo continentur, et spirituales et 
materiales, secundum totam su- 
am substantiam a Deo ex nihilo 
esse productas ; aut Deum di- 
xerit non voluntate ab omni ne- 
cessitate libera, sed tarn neces- 
sario creasse, quam necessario 
amat seipsum • aut mundum ad 
Dei gloriam conditum esse ne- 
gaverit : anathema sit. ' 

II. 

De Bevelatione. 

1. Si quis dixerit, Deum unum 
et verum, Creatorem et Dominum 
nostrum, per ea, quce facta sunt, 
naturali rationis humance lumine 
certo cognosci non posse : anathe- 
ma sit. 

2. Si quis dixerit, fieri non 
posse, aut non expedire ut per 
revelationem divinam homo de 
Deo cultuque ei exhibendo edo- 
ceatur : anathema sit. 

3. Si quis dixerit, hominem 
ad cognitionem et perfectionem, 
quce naturalem superet, divini- 
tus evehi non posse, sed ex seipso 



universal or indefinite being, which 
by determining itself constitutes the 
universality of things, distinct ac- 
cording to genera, species, and in- 
dividuals : let him be anathema. 

5. If any one confess not that 
the world, and all things which are 
contained in it, l}oth spiritual and 
material, have been, in their whole 
substance, produced by God out of 
nothing ; or shall say that God cre- 
ated, not by his will, free from all 
necessity, but by a necessity equal 
to the necessity whereby he loves 
himself; or shall deny that the 
world was made for the glory of 
God : let him be anathema. 

II. 

Of Revelation. 

1. If any one shall say that the 
one true God, our Creator and Lord, 
can not be certainly known by the 
natural light of human reason 
through created things: let him 
be anathema. 

2. If any one shall say that it is 
impossible or inexpedient that man 
should be taught by divine revela- 
tion concerning God and the wor- 
ship to be paid to him : let him be 
anathema. 

3. If any one shall say that man 
can not be raised by divine power 
to a higher than natural knowledge 
and perfection, but can and ought, 



150 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



ad omnis tandem veri et boni 
possessionem jugi jprqfectu per- 
tingere posse et debere : anathe- 
ma sit. 

4. Si quis sacrm Scriptures li- 
ar os integros cum omnibus suis 
partibus, grout illos sancta Tri- 
dentina Synodus re'eerisuit, pro 
sacris et canonicis non suscepe- 
rit, aut eos divinitus inspiratos 
esse negaverit : anathema sit. 

III. 

De Fide. 

1. Si quis dixerit, rationem 
humanam ita independent em 
esse, ut fides ei a Deo imperari 
non possit : anathema sit. 

2. Si quis dixerit, fidem divi- 
nam a naturali de Deo et rebus 
moralibus scientia non distin- 
gui, ac propterea ad fidem divi- 
nam non requiri, ut revelata 
Veritas propter auctoritatem Dei 
revelantis credatur : anathema 
sit. 

3. Si quis dixerit, revelatio- 
nem divinam externis signis cre- 
dibilem fieri non posse, ideoque 
sola interna cujusque experien- 
tia aut inspiratione privata ho- 
mines ad fidem moveri debere : 
anathema sit. 

4. Si quis dixerit, miracula 
nulla fieri posse, proindeque 
omnes de iis narrationes s etiam 



by a continuous progress, to arrive 
at length, of himself, to the posses- 
sion of all that is true and good: 
let him be anathema. 

4. If any one shall not receive 
as sacred and canonical the books 
of Holy Scripture, entire with all 
their parts, as the holy Synod of 
Trent has enumerated them, or shall 
deny that they have been divinely 
inspired : let him be anathema. 

III. 

On Faith. 

1. If any one shall say that hu- 
man reason is so independent that 
faith can not be enjoined upon it 
by God : let him be anathema. 

2. If any one shall say that di- • 
vine faith is not distinguished from 
natural knowledge of God and of 
moral truths,- and therefore that it 

is not requisite for divine faith that 
revealed truth be believed because 
of the authority of God, who re- 
veals it : let him be anathema. 

3. If any one shall say that divine 
revelation can not be made credible 
by outward signs, and therefore that 
men ought to be moved to faith 
solely by the internal experience 
of each, or by private inspiration : 
let him be anathema. 

4. If any one shall say that mira- 
cles are impossible, and therefore 
that all the accounts regarding 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



151 



in sacra Scriptura contentas, in- 
ter fabulas vel mythos ablegan- 
das esse;, aut miracula certo 
cognosci nunquam posse, nec Us 
divinam religionis Christians 
originem rite probari : anathe- 
ma sit. 

5. Si quis dixerit, assensum 
fidei Christians non esse libe- 
rum, sed argumentis humans 
rationis necessario produci / aut 
ad solam fidem vivam, qus per 
caritatem operatur, gratiam Dei 
necessariam esse : anathema sit. 

6. Si quis dixerit, par em esse 
conditionem fidelium aique eo- 
rum, qui ad fidem unice veram 
nondum pervenerunt, ita ut Ca- 
tholici justam causam habere 
possint, fidem, quam sub Eecle- 
sis magisterio jam susceperunt, 
assensu suspense- in dubium vo- 
candi, • donee demonstrationem 
scientificam credibilitatis et ve- 
ritatis fidei suce absolverint : 
anathema sit. 

IV. 

De Fide et Ratione. 

1. Si quis dixerit, in revela- 
tione divina nulla vera et pro- 
prie dicta mysteria contineri, 
sed universa fidei dogmata posse 
per rationem rite excultam e na- 
turalibus principiis intelligi et 
demonstrari : anathema sit. 



them, even those contained in Holy 
Scripture, are to be dismissed as 
fabulous or mythical ; or that mira- 
cles can never be known with cer- 
tainty, and that the divine origin 
of Christianity can not be proved 
by them : let him be anathema. 

5. If any one shall say that the 
assent of Christian faith is not a 
free act, but inevitably produced by 
the arguments of human reason; or 
that the grace of God is necessary 
for that living faith only which work- 
eth by charity: let him be anathema, 

6. If any one shall say that the 
condition of the faithful, and of 
those who have not yet attained to 
the only true faith, is on a par, so 
that Catholics may have just cause 
for doubting, with suspended assent, 
the faith which they have already 
received under the magisterium of 
the Church, until they shall have 
obtained a scientific demonstration 
of the credibility and truth of their 
faith : let him be anathema. 

IV. 

On Faith and Reason. 

1. If any one shall say that in di- 
vine revelation there are no myster- 
ies, truly and properly so called, but 
that all the doctrines of faith can be 
understood and demonstrated from 
natural principles, by properly culti- 
vated reason : let him be anathema. 



152 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



2. Si quis dixerit, disciplinas 
humanas ea cum libertate trac- 
tandas 'esse, ut earum assertiones, 
etsi doctrincB revelatce adversen- 
tur, tanquam verce retineri, neque 
ab Ecclesia proscribi possint : 
anathema sit. 

3. Si quis dixerit, fieri posse, 
ut dogmatibus ab Ecclesia pro- 
positis, aliquando secundum pro- 
gression scienticz sensus tribuen- 
dus sit alius ab eo, quern intel- 
lexit et inteUigit Ecclesia : anathe- 
ma sit. 

Itaque supremi pastoralis Nos- 
tri officii debitum exequentes, 
omnes Christi fideles, maxime 
vero eos, qui prcesunt vet docen- 
di munere funguntur, per visce- 
ra, Jesu Christi ob testamur, nec- 
non ejusdem Dei et Salvatoris 
nostri auctoritate jubemus, ut 
ad hos errores a Sancta Ecclesia 
arcendos et eliminandos, atque 
purissimod fidei lucem panden- 
dam studium et operam confe- 
rant. 

Quoniam vero satis noil est, 
hcereticam pravitatem devitare, 
nisi ii quoque errores diligenter 
fugiantur, qui ad illam plus 
minusve accedunt / omnes officii 
monemus, servandi etiam Consti- 
tutions et Decreta, quibus pra- 
vce ejusmodi opiniones, quoe isthic 



2. If any one shall say that human 
sciences are to be so freely treated 
that their assertions, although op- 
posed to revealed doctrine, are to 
be held as true, and can not be con- 
demned by the Church : let him be 
anathema. 

3. If any one shall assert it to be 
possible that sometimes, according 
to the progress of science, a sense 
is to be given to doctrines propound- 
ed by the Church different from that 
whi ch the Ch u rch has un derstood and 
understands : let him be anathema/ 

Therefore, we, fulfilling the duty 
of our supreme pastoral office, en- 
treat, by the mercies of Jesus Christ, 
and, by the authority of the same, 
our God and Saviour, we command, 
all the faithful of Christ, and espe- 
cially those who are set over others, 
or are charged with the offi«e of in- 
struction, that they earnestly and 
diligently apply themselves to ward 
off and eliminate these errors from 
holy Church, and to spread the light 
of pure faith. 

And since it is not sufficient to 
shun heretical pravity, unless those 
errors also be diligently avoided 
which more or less nearly approach 
it, we admonish all men of the fur- 
ther duty of observing those consti- 
tutions and decrees by which such 
erroneous opinions as are not here 



DOGMATIC DECREES OE 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 153 



diserte non enumerantur, ab hac 
Sancta Sede proscriptw et pro- 
hibits sunt. 

Datum Romce in publico, Ses- 
sione in Vaticana Basilica so- 
lemniter celebrata, anno Incarna- 
tionis Dominicce millesimo octin- 
gentesimo septuagesimo, die vige- 
sima quarta Aprilis. Pontifica- 
tus Nostri anno mgesimo quarto. 



CoNSTTTUTIO DoGMATICA PeDIA DE 
ECCLESIA ChEISTI. 

Edita in Sessione Quarta Sacro- 
sancti (Ecwnenici Concilii Va- 
ticani. 

PIUS EPISCOPUS, SEEVUS SEEYOEUM 
DEI SAOEO APPEOBANTE CONCI- 
LIO AD PEEPETUAM EEI MEMOEI- 
AM. 

Pastor ceternus et Episcopus 
animarum nostrarum. ut salu- 
tiferum Pedemptionis opus pe- 
renne redderet, sanctam cedifi- 
care Ecclesiam decrevit, in qua 
veluti in domo Dei viventis 
fideles omnes unius fidei et cari- 
tatis vinculo continerentur. Qua- 
propter, priusquam clarificare- 
tur, rogavit Patrem non pro 
Apostolus tantum, sed et pro eis, 
qui credituri erant per verbnm 
eorum in ipsu?)i, ut omnes unum 



specifically enumerated, have been 
proscribed and condemned by this 
Holy See. 

Given at Eome in public Session 
solemnly held in the Vatican Basil- 
ica in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sev- 
enty, on the twenty-fourth day of 
April, in the twenty-fourth year of 
our Pontificate. 



Iciest Dogmatic Constitution on 

THE CHUECH OF ChEIST. 

Published in the Fourth Session 
of the holy (Ecumenical Council 
of the Vatican. 

prus bishop, seeyant of the seey- 

ANTS OF GOD, WITH THE APPEOVAL 
OF THE SACEED COUNCIL, FOE AN 
EVEELASTING EEMEMBEANCE. 

The eternal Pastor and Bishop 
of our souls, in order to continue 
for all time the life-giving work 
of his Redemption, determined to 
build up the holy Church, where- 
in, as in the house of the living 
God, all who believe might be 
united in the bond of one faith 
and one charity. Wherefore, be- 
fore he entered into his glory, he 
prayed unto the Father, not for the 
Apostles only, but for those also 
who through their preaching should 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



esserit, stout ipse Filius et Pa- 
ter unum sunt. Quemadmodum 
igltur Apostolos, quos sibi de 
mundo elegerat, misit, sicut ipse 
missus erat a Patre : ita in 
Ecclesia sua pastores et docto- 
res usque ad consummationem 
sceculi esse voluit. Jit vero epi- 
scopatus ipse unus et indivisus 
esset, et per cohcerentes sibi in- 
vicem sacerdotes credentium mul- 
titude) universa in fidei et com- 
munionis unitate conservaretur, 
beatum Petrum ceteris Aposto- 
lis prceponens in ipso instituit 
perpetuum utriusque unitatis 
principium ac msibile funda- 
mentum, super cvjus fortitudi- 
nem ceternum exstrueretur tem- 
plum, et Ecclesice coslo inferen- 
da sublimitas in hujus fidei 
firmitate consurgeret. Et quo- 
niam porta inferi ad everten- 
dam, si fieri posset, Ecclesiam, 
contra ejus fundamentum di- 
vinitus positum onajori in dies 
odio undique i?isurgu?it, JFos 
ad Catholici gregis custodiam, 
incolumitatem, augmentum, ne- 
cessarium esse judicamus, sacro 
approbante Concilio, doctrinam 
ale institutione, perpetuitate, ac 



come to believe in him, that all 
might be one even as he the Son 
and the Father are one. 1 As then 
: he sent the Apostles whom he had 
| chosen to himself from the world, 
; as he himself had been sent by 
j the Father : so he willed that there 
should ever be pastors and teachers 
in his Church to the end of the 
world. And in order that the Epis- 
copate also might be one and undi- 
I vided, and that by means of a close- 
ly united priesthood the multitude 
of the faithful might be kept secure 
j in the oneness of faith and commu- 
: nion, he set blessed Peter over the 
rest of the Apostles, and fixed in 
him the abiding principle of this 
twofold unity, and its visible foun- 
dation, in the strength of which the 
everlasting temple should arise, and 
the Church in the firmness of that 
faith should lift her majestic front 
to Heaven. 2 And seeing that the 
gates of hell, with daily increase of 
hatred, are gathering their strength 
' on every side to upheave the foun- 
dation laid by God's own hand, and 
so, if that might be, to overthrow 
the Church : we, therefore, for the 
j preservation, safe-keeping, and in- 
! crease of the Catholic flock, with 



1 John xvii. 21. 

2 From Sermon IV. chap. ii. of St. Leo the Great, A.D. 440, Vol. I. p. 17 of edition of 
Ballerini, Venice, 1753 ; read in the eighth lection on the Feast of St. Peter's Chair at An- 
rioch. February 22. 



DOGMATIC DECEEES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



155 



natura sacri Apostolici prima- 
tus, in quo to tins JEcclesice vis 
ac soliditas consistit, cunctis 
jidelibus credendam et tenen- 
dum, secundum antiquum atque 
constantem universalis JEcclesice 
fidem, proponere, atque contra- 
rios, dominico gregi adeo per?ii- 
ciosos, errores proscribere et con- 
demnare. 



Caput I. 

De Apostolici Primatus in beato Petro in- 
stitutione. 

Docemus itaque et declaramus, 
juxta Evangelii testimonia pri- 
matum jurisdictions in univer- 
sam Dei JEcclesiam immediate 
et directe beato Petro Apostolo 
promissum atque collatum a 
Christo Domino fuisse. Unum 
enim Simonem, cui jam pridem 
dixerat : Tu vocaberis Cephas, 
postquam ille suam edidit con- 
fessionem inquiens : Tic es 
Christies, JFilius Dei vivi, solem- 
nibus his verbis allocutus est 
Dominus : JBeatus es, Simon 
Bar-Jona, quia caro et sanguis 
non revelavit tibi, sed Pater 
meus, qui in ccelis est : et ego 



the approval of the sacred Coun- 
cil, do judge it to be necessary to 
propose to the belief and accept- 
ance of all the faithful, in accord- 
ance with the ancient and constant 
faith of the universal Church, the 
doctrine touching the institution, 
perpetuity, and nature of the sacred 
Apostolic Primacy, in which is 
found the strength and solidity of 
the entire Church, and at the same 
time to proscribe and condemn the 
contrary errors, so hurtful to the 
flock of Christ. 

Chapter I. 

Of the Institution of the Apostolic Primacy 
in blessed Peter. 

We therefore teach and declare 
that, according to the testimony of 
the Gospel, the primacy of juris- 
dictioii over the universal Church 
of God was immediately and di- 
rectly promised and given to blessed 
Peter the Apostle by Christ the 
Lord. For it was to Simon alone, 
to whom he had already said : c Thou 
shalt be called Cephas, 51 that the 
Lord after the confession made by 
him, saying : i Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God,' addressed 
these solemn words : £ Blessed art 
thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh 
and blood have not revealed it to 
thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 



1 John i. 42. 



156 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



dico tibi, quia tu es Petrus, et 
super hanc JPetram cedificabo 
Ecclesiam meam, et portce in- 
feri non prwvalebunt adversus 
earn : et tibi dabo clams regni 
coelorum : et quodcumque liga- 
veris super terrain, erit ligatum 
et in ccelis : et quodcumque sol- 
Deris super terrain, erit solutum 
et in cadis. Atque uni Simoni 
Petro contulit Jesus post suam 
resurrectionem summi pastoris 
et rectoris jurisdictionem in to- 
tum suum ovile dicens : Pasce 
agnos meos : Pasce oves meas. 
Huic tarn manifestos sacrarum 
Scripturarum doctrinoe, tit ab 
Ecclesia Catliolica semper intel- 
lecta est, aperte opponuntur 
pravce eorum sententim, qui, 
constitutam a Christo Domino 
in sua Ecclesia regiminis* for- 
mam pervertentes, negant, so- 
lum Petrum prce cceteris Apo- 
stolis, sive seorsum singulis 
sive omnibus simul, vero pro 
prioque jurisdictionis primatu 
fuisse co Christo instruct um ; 
aut qui affirmant, eundem pri- 
matum non immediate directe- 
que ipsi beato Petro, sed Ec- 
clesice, et per hanc illi ut ip- 
sius Ecclesioe ministro delatum 
fuisse. 

Si quis igitur dixerit, beatum 



And I say to thee that thou art 
Peter ; and upon this rock I will 
build my Church, and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it. 
And I will give to thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven. And what- 
soever thou shalt bind on earth, 
it shall be bound also in heaven ; 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth, it shall be loosed also in 
heaven.' 1 And it was upon Simon 
alone that Jesus after his resurrec- 
tion bestowed the jurisdiction of 
chief pastor and ruler over all his 
fold in the words : ' Feed my lambs; 
feed my sheep. 52 At open variance 
with this clear doctrine of Holy 
Scripture as it has been ever under- 
stood by the Catholic Church are 
the perverse opinions of those who, 
while they distort the form of gov- 
ernment established by Christ the 
Lord in his Church, deny that Pe- 
ter in his single person, preferably 
to all the other Apostles, whether 
taken separately or together, was 
endowed by Christ with a true and 
proper primacy of jurisdiction ; or 
of those who assert that the same 
primacy was not bestowed immedi- 
ately and directly upon blessed Pe- 
ter himself, but upon the Church, 
and through the Church on Peter 
as her minister. 

If any one, therefore, shall say 



1 Matt. xvi. 16-19. 



2 John xxi. 15-17. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

Pet rum Apostolum non esse a 
Christo Domino constitutum 
Apostolorum omnium princi- 
pem et totius JEcelesice militan- 
tis visibile caput; vel eundem 
honoris tantum, non autem verce 
propri que jurisdictionis pri- 
matum ab eodem Domino nos- 
tro Jesu Christo direct e et im- 
mediate accepisse : anathema sit. 

Caput II. 

De perpetuitate Primatus heath Petri in 
Romanis Pontificibus. 

Quod autem in beato Aposto- 
lo Petro princeps pastorum et 
pastor niagnus ovium Dominus 
Christus Jesus in perpetuam sa- 
ltan ac perenne bonum Eccle- 
sice instituit, id eodem auctore 
in Eeclesia, quae fundata super 
petram ad finem soeculorum 
usque fir ma stabit, jugiter du- 
rare necesse est. Nidli sane du- 
bium, imo scecidis omnibus no- 
tum est, quod sanctus beatissi- 
musque Petrus, Apostolorum 
princeps et cajmt fideique co- 
lumna, et Ecclesice Catholics 
fundam,entum, a Domino nos- 
tro Jesu Christo, Salvatore hu- 
mani generis ac Bedemptore-, 
claves regni accepit : qui ad 
hoc usque tempus et semper in 
suis successor ibus, episcopis sane- 
toe Pomance Sedis, ah ipso fun- 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 157 

that blessed Peter the Apostle was 
not appointed the Prince of all the 
Apostles and the visible Head of 
the whole Church Militant; or that 
the same directly and immediately 
received from the same our Lord 
Jesus Christ a primacy of honor 
only, and not of true and proper 
jurisdiction: let him be anathe- 
ma. 

Chapter II. 

On the Perpetuity of the Primacy of blessed 
Peter in the Roman Pontiffs. 

That which the Prince of Shep- 
herds and great Shepherd of the 
sheep, Jesus Christ-our Lord, estab- 
lished in the person of the blessed 
Apostle Peter to secure the perpet- 
ual welfare and lasting good of the 
Church, must, by the same institu- 
tion, necessarily remain unceasing- 
ly in the Church; which, being 
founded upon the.Rock, will stand 
firm to the end of the world. For 
none can doubt, and it is known to 
all ages, that the holy and blessed 
Peter, the Prince and Chief of the 
Apostles, the pillar of the faith and 
foundation of the Catholic Church, 
received the keys of the kingdom 
from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sav- 
iour and Redeemer of mankind, and 
lives, presides, and judges, to this 
day and always, in his successors 
the Bishops of the Holy See of 



158 DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



datce, ejusque consecrate san- 
guine, vivit et prcesidet et judi- 
cium exercet. Unde quicwnque 
in hac Cathedra Petro succe- 
dit, is secundum Christi ipsius 
institutione?n primatum Petri 
in universam Ecclesiam obtinet. 
Manet ergo dispositio veritatis, 
et beatus Petrus, in accepta for- 
titudine petrce perseverans, sus- 
cepta Ecclesice gubernacula non 
reliquit. Hac de causa ad Po- 
manam Ecclesiam propter po- 
tentiorem principalitatem necesse 
semper fitit omnem convenire 
Ecclesiam, hoc est, eos, qui sunt 
undique fideles, ut in ea Sede, 
e qua venera?idce com?nunionis 
jura in omnes dimanant, tam- 
quam membra in capite conso- 
ciata, in tinam corporis compa- 
gem coalescerent. 



Si quis ergo dixerit, non esse 
ex ipsius Christi Domini insti- 
tutione, seu jure divino, ut bea- 
tus Petrus in primatu super 
universam Ecclesiam habeat per- 



Bome, which was founded by him, 
and consecrated by his blood. 1 
Whence, whosoever succeeds to Pe- 
ter in this See, does by the institu- 
tion of Christ himself obtain the 
Primacy of Peter over the whole 
Church. The disposition made by 
Incarnate Truth therefore remains, 
and blessed Peter, abiding through 
the strength of the Kock in the 
power that he received, has not 
abandoned the direction of the 
Church. 2 Wherefore it has at all 
times been necessary that every 
particular Church — that is to say, 
the faithful throughout the world 
— should agree with the Roman 
Church, on account of the greater 
authority of the princedom which 
this has received; that all being 
associated in the unity of that See 
whence the rights of communion 
spread to all, might grow together 
as members of one Head in the 
compact unity of the body. 3 

If, then, any should deny that it 
is by the institution of Christ the 
Lord, or by divine right, that blessed 
Peter should have a perpetual line 
of successors in the Primacy over 



1 From the Acts (Session Third) of the Third General Council of Ephesns, A. D. 431, Labhe's 
Councils, Vol. III. p. 1154, Venice edition of 1728. See also letter of St. Peter Chrysologus 
to Eutyches, in life prefixed to his works, p. 13, Venice, 1750. 

2 From Sermon III. chap. iii. of St. Leo the Great, Vol. I. p. 1 2. 

3 From St. Irenseus against Heresies, Book III. cap. iii. p. 175, Benedictine edition, Venice, 
1734; and Acts of Synod of Aquileja, A.D. 381,Labbe's Councils, Vol.11, p. 1185, Venice, 
1728. 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



159 



petuos successores / aut Boma- 
num Pontificem non esse heati 
Petri in eodem primatu succes- 
sorem : anathema sit. 

Caput III. 

De vi et ratione Prhnatus Romani Ponti- 
Jicis. 

Quapropter apertis innixi sa- 
crarum litterarum testimoniis, et 
inhcerentes turn Prcedecessorum 
N'ostrorum, Bomanorum Ponti- 
ficum, turn Conciliorum genera- 
lium disertis perspicuisque cle- 
cretis, innovamus oecumenici Con- 
cilii Florentine definitionem, qua 
credendum ab omnibus Christi 
fidelibus est, sanctam Apostoli- 
cam Sedem, et Bomanum Ponti- 
ficem in universum orbem tenere 
primatum,, et ipsum Pontificem 
Bomanum successorem esse beaii 
Petri, principis Apostolorum, et 
venom Christi Vicarium, totius- 
que JEcclesice caput, et omnium 
Christ ianoncm patrem ac docto- 
rem existere; et ipsi in beato Pe- 
tro pascendi, regendi ac guber- 
nandi universadem Ecclesiam a 
Domino nostro Jesu Christo ple- 
nam potestatem traditam esse; 
quemadmodum. etiam in gestis 
cemmenicorum Conciliorum et sa- 
cris canonibus continetur. 

Docemus proinde et declara- 
mus, Ecclesiam Bomanam, dis- 



the universal Church, or that the 
Soman Pontiff is the successor of 
blessed Peter in this primacy: let 
him be anathema. 

Chapter III. 

On the Power and Nature of the Primacy of 
the Roman Pontiff. 

NA Wherefore, resting on plain tes- 
timonies of the Sacred Writings, 
and adhering to the plain and ex- 
press decrees both of our predeces- 
sors, the Roman Pontiffs, and of 
the General Councils, we renew 
the delinition of the oecumenical 
Council of Florence, in virtue of 
which all the faithful of Christ 
must believe that the holy Apos- 
tolic See and the Roman Pontiff 
possesses the primacy over the 
whole world, and that the Roman 
Pontiff is the successor of blessed • 
Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and 
is true vicar of Christ, and head 
of the whole Church, and father 
and teacher of all Christians; 
and that full power was given to 
him in blessed Peter to rule, feed, 
and govern the universal Church 
by Jesus Christ our Lord; as is 
also contained in the acts of the 
General Councils and in the sa- 
cred Canons. 

Hence we teach and declare that 
by the appointment of our Lord the 



160 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



ponente Domino, super omnes 
alias ordinaries potestatis obti- 
nere principdium, et ham Ro- 
mani Pontificis jurisdiction-is 
potestatem, quce vere episcopalis 
est, immediatam esse : erg a quam 
cujuscumque Titus et dignitatis 
pastores atque fideles, tarn seor- 
sum singidi quam simid omnes, 
officio hierarchical subordinatio- 
nis verceque obediential obstrin- 
guntur, non solum in rebus, quae 
ad fidem et mores, sed etiam in 
Us, quce ad disciplincmi et regi- 
men Ecclesiad per totum orbem 
diffusaz pertinent j ita ut, cics- 
todita cum Romano Pontifice 
tarn communionis, quam ejusdem 
fidei professionis imitate, Eccle- 
sice Christi sit unus grex sub 
uno summo pastor e. Haze est 
• Catholicce veritatis doctrina, a 
qua deviare salva fide atque sa- 
lute nemo potest. 

Tantum autem abest, ut haze 
Summi Pontificis potestas ofii- 
ciat ordinariaz ac immediate^ illi 
episcopalis jurisdictions pote- 
st ati, qua Episcopi, qui positi a 
Spiritu Sancto in Apostolorum 
locum successerunt, tamquam ve- 
ri pastores assignatos sibi greges, 
singuli singulos, pascunt et re- 
gunt, ut eadem a supremo et 



Roman Church possesses a superi- 
ority of ordinary power over all 
other churches, and that this power 
of jurisdiction of the Roman Pon- 
tiff, which is truly episcopal, is im- 
mediate ; to which all, of whatever 
rite and dignity, both pastors and 
faithful, both individually and col- 
lectively, are bound, by their duty 
of hierarchical subordination and 
true obedience, to submit not only 
in matters which belong to faith 
and morals, but also in those that 
appertain to the discipline and gov- 
ernment of the Church throughout 
the world, so that the Church of 
Christ may be one flock under one 
supreme pastor through the preser- 
vation of unity both of communion 
and of profession of the same faith 
with the Roman Pontiff. This is 
the teaching of Catholic truth, from 
which no one can deviate without 
loss of faith and of salvation. 

But so far is this power of the 
Supreme Pontiff from being any 
prejudice to the ordinary and im- 
mediate power of episcopal juris- 
diction, by which Bishops, who 
have been set by the Holy Ghost 
to succeed and hold the place of the 
Apostles, 1 feed and govern, each his 
own flock, as true pastors, that this 
their episcopal authority is really 



1 From chap. iv. of Twenty-third Session of Council of Trent, 'Of the Ecclesiastical Hie- 
rarchy. ' 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



161 



universali Pastore asseraticr, ro~ 
boretur ac vindicetur, secundum 
illud sancti Gregorii Magni : 
Meus honor est honor universa- 
lis EcdlesicB, Meus honor est 
Jratruw, meorum solidus vigor. 
Turn ego vere honoratus sum, 
cum singulis guibusgue honor 
debitus non negatur 

Porro ex suprema ilia Poma- 
ni Pontificis potestate gubernan- 
di universam Ecclesiam jus ei- 
dem esse consequitur, in hujus 
sui muneris exercitio . liber e com- 
municandi cum pastoribus et 
gregibus totius Ecclesice, at iidem 
ab ipso in via salutis doceri ac 
regi possint. Quare damnamus 
ac reprobamus illorum senten- 
tias, qui hanc supremi capitis 
cum pastoribus et gregibus com- 
municationem licite impediri 
posse dicunt, aut eandem red- 
didit sczculari potestati obnoxi- 
am, ita ut contendant, quoe ab 
Apostolica Sede vet ejus aucto- 
ritate ad regimen Ecclesim con- 
stituuntur, vim ac valorem non 
habere, nisi potestatis scecularis 
placito confirmentur. 

Et quoniam divino Apostolici 
primatus jure Pomamis Ponti- 
fex universal Ecclesias prceest, 



asserted, strengthened, and protect- 
ed by the supreme and universal 
Pastor; in accordance with the 
words of St. Gregory the Great: 
'My lienor is the honor of the 
whole Church. My honor is the 
firm strength of my brethren. 1 
am truly honored when the honor 
due to each and all is not withheld. 1 

Further, from this supreme pow- 
er possessed by the Eoman Pontiff 
of governing the universal Church, 
it follows that he has the right of 
free communication with the pas- 
tors of the whole Church, and with 
their flocks, that these may be taught 
and ruled by him in the way of sal- 
vation, therefore we condemn 
and reject the opinions of those 
who hold that the communication 
between this supreme head and 
the pastors and their flocks can 
lawfully be impeded ; or who make 
this communication subject to the 
will of the secular power, so as to 
maintain that whatever is done by 
the Apostolic See, or by its au- 
thority, for the government of the 
Church, can not have force or value 
unless it be confirmed by the as- 
sent of the secular power. 

And since by the divine right 
of Apostolic primacy the Eoman 
Pontiff is placed over the universal 



1 From the letters of St. Gregory the Great, Book VIII. 30, Vol. II. p. 919, Benedictine 
edition, Paris, 1 705. 



162 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



docemus etiam et declaramus, 
eum esse judicem sujpremum fide- 
Hum , et in omnibus causis ad 
examen ecclesiasticum spectanti- 
bus ad ipsius posse judicium 
recurri / Sedis vero ApostoliccE, 
cujus auctoritate major non est, 
judicium a nemine fore retrac- 
tandum, neque cuiquam de ejus 
licere judicare judicio. Quare 
a recto veritatis tramite aber- 
rant, qui affirmant, licere ab ju- 
diciis Romanorum Pontificum 
ad cecumenicum Concilium tam- 
quam ad auctoritatem Romano 
Pontifice superiorem appellare. 

Si auis itaque dixerit, Roma- 
nian Pontificem habere tantum- 
modo officium inspectionis vel 
directionis, non autem plenam 
et supremam potestatem juris- 
dictionis' in universam Ecclesi- 
am, non solum in rebus, quce 
ad fidem et mores, sed etiam in 
Us, quce ad disciplinam et regi- 
men Ecclesicz per totum orbem 
diffuses pertinent ; aut eum ha- 
bere tantum potiores partes, non' 
vero totam plenitudinem hi jus 
supremce potestatis ; aut hanc 
ejus potestatem non esse ordina- 
riam et immediatam sive in om- 



Church, we further teach and de- 
clare that he is the supreme judge 
of the faithful, 1 and that in all 
causes, the decision of which be- 
longs to the Church, recourse may 
be had to his tribunal, 2 and that 
none may re-open the judgment of 
the Apostolic See, than whose au- 
thority there is no greater, nor can 
any lawfully review its judgment 3 
Wherefore they err. from the right 
course who assert that it is lawful 
to appeal from the judgments of 
the Roman Pontiffs to an oecumen- 
ical Council, as to an authority high- 
er than that of the Roman Pontiff. 

If, then, any shall say that the 
Roman Pontiff has the office mere- 
ly of inspection or direction, and 
not full and supreme power of 
jurisdiction over the universal 
Church, not only in things which 
belong to faith and morals, but 
also in those which relate to the 
discipline and government of the 
Church spread throughout the 
world ; or assert that he possesses 
merely the principal part, and not 
all the fullness of this supreme 
power; or that this power which 
he enjoys is not ordinary and im- 
mediate, both over each and all the 



1 From a Brief of Pius VI. Super solidltate, of Nov. 28, 1786. 

2 From the Acts of the Fourteenth General Council of Lyons, A.D. 1274 (Labbe's Coun- 
cils, Vol. XIV. p. 512). 

3 From Letter VIII. of Pope Nicholas I., A.D. 858, to the Emperor Michael (Labbe's 
Councils, Vol. IX. pp. 1339 and 1 570). 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



163 



nes ac singulas ecclesias, sive in 
omnes et singulos pastorcs et 
fideles : anathema sit. 

Caput IV. 

De Romani Pvitijicis infallibili magiste- 
rio. 

Ipso autem Apostolico prima- 
tu, quern Pomanus Pontifex, 
tamquam Petri principis Apo- 
stolorum successor, in univer- 
sam Ecclesiam obtinet, supre- 
mam quoque magisterii potesta- 
tem comprehendi, hccc Sancta 
Secies semper tenuit, perpetuus 
Ecclesice usus comprobat, ipsa- 
que cecumenica Concilia, ect im- 
primis, in quibus Oriens cum 
Occident e in fidei caritatisque 
unionem conveniebat, declarave- 
runt. Patres enim Concilii 
Constantinopolitani quarti, ma- 
jorum vestigiis inhcerentes, hanc 
solemnem ediderunt professio- 
nem : Prima salus est, rectos 
fidei regulam custodire. Et 
quia non potest Domini nostri 
Jesu Christi prcetermitti senten- 
tia dicentis : Tu es Petrus, et 
super hanc petram cedificabo 
Ecclesiam mecwi, hcec, qitce dicta 
sunt, rerum probantur effectibus, 
quia in Sede Apostolica imma- 
culata est semper Catholica reser- 
vata religio, et sancta celebrata 



churches, and over each and all the 
pastors and the faithful : let him 
be anathema. 

Chapter IV. 

i \ 

Concerning the Infallible Teaching of the 
Roman Pontiff. 

Moreover, that the supreme pow- 
er of teaching is also included in 
the Apostolic primacy, which the 
Eoman Pontiff, as the successor of 
Peter, Prince of the Apostles, pos- 
sesses over the whole Church, this 
Holy See has always held, the per- 
petual practice of the Church con- 
firms, and oecumenical Councils also 
have declared, especially those in 
which the East with the West met 
in the union of faith and charity. 
For the Fathers of the Fourth Coun- 
cil of Constantinople, following in 
the footsteps of their predecessors, 
gave forth this solemn profession : 
The first condition of salvation is 
to keep the rule of the true faith. 
And because the sentence of our 
Lord Jesus Christ can not be passed 
by, who said : 6 Thou art Peter, 
and upon this rock I will build 
my Church,' 1 these things which 
have been said are approved by 
events, because in the Apostolic 
See the Catholic religion and her 
holy and well-known doctrine has 
always been kept undefiled. De- 



1 Matt. 



xvi. 18. 



1Q± DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

doctrina. Ab hujus ergo fide et 
doctrina sejparari minime cupi- 
entes, speramus, ut in una com- 
munione, quam Sedes Ajjostolica 
prcedicat, esse mereamur, in qua 
est integra* et vera Christians 
religionis soliditas. Ajpjprobante 
vero Lugdunensi Concilio secun- 
do, Grceci professi sunt : Sanc- 
tam Pomanam JEcclesiam sum- 
mum et plenum primatum et 
principatum super universam 
Ecclesiam Catholicam obtinere, 
quern se ab ipso Domino in 
beato Petro, Apostolorum prin- 
cipe sive vertice, cujus Pomanus 
Pontifex est successor, cum po- 
testatis plenitudine recepisse ve- 
raciter et humiliter recognoscit ; 
et sicut prca cceteris tenetur fidei 
veritatem defend ere, sic et, si 
quce de fide subortce ' fuerint 
qucestiones, suo debent judicio 
definiri. Florentinum denique 
Concilium definivit : Pontificem 
Pomanum, verum Christi Vi- 
carium, totiusque Ecclesice caput 
et omnium Cliristianorum pa- 
trem ac doctorem existere ; et 
ipsi in beato Petro pascendi, re- 
gendi ac gubernandl universalem 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

siring, therefore, not to be in the 
least degree separated from the 
faith and doctrine of that See, we 
hope that we may deserve to be in 
the one communion, which the 
Apostolic See preaches, in which 
is the entire and true solidity of the 
Christian religion. 1 And, with the 
approval of the Second Council of 
Lyons, the Greeks professed that 
the holy Roman Church enjoys su- 
preme and full primacy and pre- 
eminence over the whole Catholic 
Church, which it truly and humbly 
acknowledges that it has received 
with the plenitude of power from 
our Lord himself in the person of 
blessed Peter, Prince or Head of the 
Apostles, whose successor the Ro- 
man Pontiff is; and as the Apos- 
tolic See is bound before all others 
to defend the truth of faith, so also, 
if any questions regarding faith 
shall arise, they must be defined by 
its judgment. 2 Finally, the Coun- 
cil of Florence defined: 3 That the 
Roman Pontiff is the true vicar of 
Christ, and the head of the whole 
Church, and the father and teacher 
of all Christians ; and that to him 
in blessed Peter was delivered by 



1 From the Formula of St. Hormisdas, subscribed by the Fathers of the Eighth General 
Council (Fourth of Constantinople), A.D. 869 (Labbe's Councils, Vol. V. pp. 583, 622). 

2 From the Acts of the Fourteenth General Council (Second of Lyons), A.D. 1274 (Labbe, 
Vol. XIV. p. 512). 

3 From the Acts of the Seventeenth General Council of Florence, A.D. 1438 (Labbe, 
Vol. XVIII. p. 526). 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 

Ecclesiam a Domino nostro Jesu 
Christo plenam potestatem tradi- 
tam esse. 

Hide pastorali muneri ut sa- 
iisfacerent, Predecessor es JVostri 
indefessam semper ojperam dede- 
runt, %it salutaris Christi doctri- 
na apud omnes terroe popidos 
propagaretur, parique cur a vigi- 
larunt, ut, ubi receptee esset, sin- 
cera etpura conservaretur. Quo- 
circa totius orbis Antistites, nunc 
singuli, nunc in Synodis congre- 
gati, longam ecclesiarum consue- 
tudinem et antiques regulce for- 
malin sequentes, -ea prcesertim pe- 
llicula, quce in negotiis fidei emer- 
gebant, ad hanc Sedem Apostoli- 
cam retiderunt, ut ibi potissi- 
mum resarcirentur damna jidei, 
ubi fides non potest sentire de- 
fectum. Pomani autem Ponti- 
ficis, prout temporum et rerum 
conditio suadebat, nunc convoca- 
tis cecumenicis Conciliis aut ex- 
plorata Ecclesice per orbem dis- 
persed sententia, nunc per Syno- 
dos particulares, nunc cdiis, quce 
divina suppeditabat providentia, 
adhibitis auxiliis, ea tenenda de- 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 165 

our Lord Jesus Christ the full 
power of feeding, ruling, and gov- 
erning the whole Church. 1 

To satisfy this pastoral duty, our 
predecessors ever made unwearied 
efforts that the salutary doctrine of 
Christ might be propagated among 
all the nations of the earth, and 
witli equal care watched that it 
might be preserved genuine and 
pure where it had been received. 
Therefore the Bishops of the whole 
world, now singly, now assembled 
in Synod, following the long-estab- 
lished custom of churches, 2 and 
the form of the ancient rule, 3 sent 
word to this Apostolic See of those 
dangers especially which sprang up 
in matters of faith, that there the 
losses of faith might be most effect- 
ually repaired where the faith can 
not fail. 4 And the Roman Pontiffs, 
according to the exigencies of times 
and circumstances, sometimes as- 
sembling oecumenical Councils, or 
asking for the mind of the Church 
scattered throughout the world, 
sometimes by particular Synods, 
sometimes using other helps which 
Divine Providence supplied, cle- 



1 John xxi. 15-17. 

2 From a letter of St. Cyril of Alexandria to Pope St. Celestiwe I., A.D. 422 (Vol. VI. 
Part II. p. 36, Paris edition of 1G38). 

3 From a Rescript of St. Innocent I. to the Council of Milevis, A.D. 402 (Labbe, Vol. III. 
p. 47). 

4 From a letter of St. Bernard to Pope Innocent II. A.D. 1 130 (Epist. 191, Vol. IV. p. 433, 
Paris edition of 1742). 



166 



DOGMATIC DECREES OE 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



finiverunt, quce sacris Scripturis 
et apostolicis traditionibus con- 
sentanea, Deo adjutore, cognove- 
rant. Neque enim Petri succes- 
soribus Spirit us Sanctus pr omis- 
sus est, ut eo revelante novam 
doctrinam patefacerent, sed ut, 
eo assistente, traditam per Apos- 
lolos revelationem sen fidei de- 
positum sancte custodirent et 
fid el iter expon eren t. Quoru m 
quidem apostolicam doctrinam 
omnes venerabiles Patres am- 
plexi et sancti doctores ortho- 
doxi venerati atque secuti sunt / 
plenissime scientes, hanc sancti 
Petri Sedem ab omni semper 
errore illibatam permanere, se- 
cundum Domini Salvatoris nos- 
tri divinam pollicitationem di- 
scipulorum suorum principi fac- 
tam : Ego rogavi pro te, ut non 
deficiat fides iua, et tu ali- 
quando conversus confirma fira- 
tres tuos. 

Hoc igitur veritatis et fidei 
numquam deficientis charisma 
Petro ejusque in hac Cathedra 
successorihus divinities collatum 
est, ut excelso suo munere in om- 
nium salutem fungerentur, ut 
universus Christi grex per eos 
ab err oris venenosa esca aversus, 
coelestis doctrince pabido nutri- 



I fined as to be held those things 
which with the help of God they 
had recognized as conformable with 
the sacred Scriptures and Apos- 
tolic traditions. For the Holy Spirit 
was not promised to the successors 
of Peter, that by his revelation they 
might make known new doctrine ; 
but that by his assistance they might 
inviolably keep and faithfully ex- 
pound the revelation or deposit of 
faith delivered through the Apos- 
tles. And, indeed, all the venerable 
Fathers have embraced, and the 
holy orthodox doctors have vener- 
ated and followed, their Apostolic 
doctrine ; knowing most fully that 
this See of holy Peter remains ever 
free from all blemish of error ac- 
cording to the divine promise of 
the Lord our Saviour made to the 
Prince of his disciples : • I have 
prayed for thee that thy faith fail 
not, and, when thou art converted, 
confirm thy brethren.' 1 

This gift, then, of truth and 
never-failing faith was conferred 
by heaven upon Peter and his suc- 
cessors in this chair, that they might 
perform their high office for the 
salvation of all; that the whole 
flock of Christ, kept away by them 
from the poisonous food of error, 
might be nourished with the pas- 



1 Luke xxii. 32. See also the Acts of the Sixth General Council, A.D. G80 (Labbe, Vol. 
VII. p. G50). 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



167 



retur, ut, sublata schismatts oc- 
casions, Ecclesia tota unco con- 
servaretur, atqiie suo fundamen- 
to innixa, firma adversus inferi 
portas consisteret. 

At veto cum hac ipsa cetate, 
qua salutifera Apostolici mune- 
ris efficacia vel maxime requiri- 
tur, non pauci inveniantur, qui 
illius auctoritati obtrectant ; ne- 
cessarium omnino esse censcmus, 
prcerogativam, quam unigenitus 
Dei Filius cum summo pasto- 
rali officio conjungere dignatus 
est, solemniter asserere. 

Itaque jSFos tradition^ a fidei 
Christiance exordio perceptce fide- 
liter inhoerendo, ad Dei Salva- 
toris nostri gloriam, religionis 
Catholicce exaltationem et Chris- 
tianorum pojmlomcm salutem, 
sacro approbante Concilio, doce 
mus et divinities revelatum do 
gma esse definimus : Romanum 
Pontificem, cum ex Cathedra lo- 
quitur, id est, cum omnium 
Christianorum pastoris et docto- 
ris munere fungens pro supre- 
ma sua Apostolica auctoritate 
doctrinam de fide vel moribus 
ab universa Ecclesia tenendam 
definit, per assistentiam clivi- 
nam, ipsi in beato Detro pro- 
missam, ea infallibilitate pol- 
lere, qua divinus Hedemptor 



tare of heavenly doctrine ; that the 
occasion of schism bein^ removed, 
the whole Church might be kept 
one, and, resting on its foundation, 
might stand firm against the gates 
of hell. 

But since in this very age, in 
which the salutary efficacy of the 
Apostolic office is most of all re- 
quired, not a few are found who 
take away from its authority, we 
judge it altogether necessary sol- 
emnly to assert the prerogative 
which the only-begotten Son of 
God vouchsafed to join with the 
supreme pastoral office. 

Therefore faithfully adhering to 
the tradition received from the be- 
ginning of the Christian faith, for 
the glory of God our Saviour, the 
exaltation of the Catholic religion, 
and tlie salvation of Christian peo- 
ple, the sacred Council approving, 
we teach and define that it is a 
dogma divinely revealed : that the 
Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex 
cathedra, that is, when in discharge 
of the office of pastor and doctor 
of all Christians, by virtue of his 
supreme Apostolic authority, he 
defines a doctrine re^ardin^ faith 
or morals to be held by the uni- 
versal Church, by the divine assist- 
ance promised to him in blessed 
Peter, is possessed of that infalli- 
bility with which the divine Re- 



16S 



DOGMATIC DECREES OF 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 



Ecclesiam suam in definienda 
doctrina de fide vel movibus in- 
strtcctam esse voluit ; ideoque 
ejusmodi Romani Pontificis de- 
finitiones ex sese, non autem ex 
consensu Ecclesice, irreformabiles 
esse. 

Si quis autem huic Nostras 
definitioni contradicere, quod 
Deus avertat, prcesumpserit : 
anathema sit. 

Datum Romce, in jpublica Ses- 
sione in Vaticana Basilica so- 
lemniter celebrata, anno Incarna- 
iionis Dominican millesimo octin- 
gentesimo septuagesimo, die de- 
cima octava Julii. Pontificatus 
IFostri anno mgesimo quinto. 



deemer willed that his Church 
should be endowed for defining- 
doctrine regarding faith or morals; 
and that therefore such definitions 
of the Eoman Pontiff are irreform- 
able 1 of themselves, and not from 
the consent of the Church. 

But if any one — which may God 
avert — presume to contradict this 
our definition : let him be anathe- 
ma. 

Given at Rome in public Session 
solemnly held in the Vatican Basil- 
ica in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sev- 
enty, on the eighteenth day of July, 
in the twenty-fifth year of our Pon- 
tificate. 



1 That is, in the words used by Pope Nicholas I., note 13, and in the Synod of Quedlin- 
burg, A.D. 1085, 'It is allowed to none to revise its judgment, and to sit in judgment upon 
what it has judged' (Labbe, Vol. XII.' p. QVd). 



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THE DESERT OF THE EXODUS. Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the 
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